Malnutirition among kids from 'not poor' Leyte families alarming

CARIGARA, Leyte, June 25  -- Malnutrition is directly linked to poverty, but not the case in this town, where children from high income families are on the list of the town’s most underweight.

Rosalyn Securata, 29, was not surprised to hear that her three-year-old son Chris Lawrence only gained a weight of 9.6 kilograms, way below than the ideal 13 to 15 kilograms for his age.

Her common-law husband, Almar Dabon, is not a poor man in the town's populated West Visoria village dotted with makeshift houses. The fisherman earns PHP300 to PHP1,500 daily, more than the PHP200 average daily income of pedicab drivers in their community.

Rosalyn, a high school dropout, admitted that their small family is capable of buying nutritious food, but her son’s taste bud limits their food choices.

“What can I do if my son has no appetite to eat any fish and vegetables? I don’t want him to go hungry that’s why I always prepare his favorite food -- instant noodles, fried chicken, and hotdogs,” Rosalyn shared.

The mother practiced exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of her baby, but the child was not provided with proper supplemental foods, nutrition workers concluded.

Maria Belinda Alberca, head of the local nutrition office in Carigara town, said on Monday the child already missed the so-called “golden window of opportunity” of children.

The first 1,000 days, which starts from conception until the child reaches his or her second birthday, is considered globally as the “golden window of opportunity” to build a person’s foundation for physical growth, mental development, health and economic productivity, according to experts.

In Libo village, one of the most malnourished children is nine-year-old Akisha Veronica Louisse, raised by well-educated Rina Rhea, a single mother from a well-to-do family.

Her mother, a local government employee, is unfazed to learn that her kid only weighs 17 kilograms, just a little over half of the ideal weight of 30 kilograms for a Grade 4 learner. “I’m not worried because I was also tiny when I was a kid.”

In contrast, Akisha’s teacher, Sonia Rendora of Cassidy Elementary School was bothered by the child’s performance inside the classroom. “This child is bright, but her attention span is very short and sometimes she fell asleep even before the end of the first subject,” the teacher shared.

Catalino Dotollo, National Nutrition Council (NNC) regional program coordinator, has expressed concern that some children not from poor families suffer food insecurity, citing that consequences of improper feeding are irreversible.

“Their caretakers are primarily responsible to make sure that they’re getting the right food after exclusive breastfeeding,” Dotollo told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.

The official is worried of the consequence of malnutrition to education. “In the first two years of life, a child’s brain forms 1,000 new neural connections per second. This pace of development is never repeated again in life. Reduced cognitive development is largely irreversible,” he said.

The two children are among the 366 underweight children, representing 18.10 percent of all children covered by weighing activities.

Alberca is not convinced about the two mothers’ justification as she believes that feeding children requires discipline and determination.

“If the child is used to eating nutritious food six months after birth, it’s not hard to continue proper feeding practices in the first 1,000 days of life and beyond,” Alberca said.

With its limited resources, the local nutrition office, which shares a room with the town’s population office, has been conducting information drive among mothers in 49 villages.

One main activity is the “Pabasa sa Nutrisyon” an information-sharing type of activity that targets breastfeeding mothers, pregnant women and mothers of malnourished children to teach them the proper selection and preparation of affordable and nutritious food.

This activity is being led by barangay (village) nutrition scholars, among the low-paying community workers, receiving only PHP300 to PHP500 monthly.

Carigara, the oldest settlement in Leyte province, is a second-class town in central Leyte. In 2016, the town generated PHP125.32-million income with PHP102.68 million as share from the national government’s internal revenue allotment.

Alberca said that although the budget for nutrition program is very minimal, they have been linking with other agencies with activities that could help improve nutrition status of children such as agriculture, upgraded infrastructure, employment, and education. (SQM/PNA)