Malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is when a person is not getting enough food or not getting the right sort of food. Even if people get enough to eat, they will become malnourished if the food they eat does not provide the proper amounts of micro-nutrients - vitamins and minerals - to meet daily nutritional requirements. A malnourished person finds that their body has difficulty doing normal things such as growing and resisting disease. Physical work becomes problematic and even learning abilities can be diminished. For women, pregnancy becomes risky and they cannot be sure of producing nourishing breast milk. There are two sides to eliminating malnutrition: 

1. sustaining the quantity of food a person eats; and
2. ensuring adequate health care and a healthy environment.

This topic is meaningful to me because I once worked with a child whose family had fallen on hard times and it was hard for them to know what they were going to eat each day and I remember feeling really sorry for them and wanting to help them out but of course it would be conflict of interest to help just that one family out when it could be plenty of other families at the school that was having a hard time making ends meet. So what I would do is secretly put money on the child's school account whenever I had extra money to spare and making sure to tell the cafeteria staff to let the child know she could get a more healthy meal and not just peanut butter sandwiches. When I see children who are malnourished I begin to feel really grateful for everything I have and for every piece of food that I have in my refrigerator because I could be that child that does not know what I am going to eat the next day. 

**Malnutrition in Haiti**
In Haiti one in 10 children die before the age of 5, malnutrition is the leading cause of death in children, one third of 1 year old show signs of severe growth retardation, forty percent of all 5 year olds have stunted growth and brain development and malnutrition contributes to 60% of all deaths in children.

The information I have learned can definitely impact my future work because I have the possibility of running into children and families that are malnourished because the lack of money to buy the correct foods or just because their family exhibit poor eating habits. 

References

Malnutrition . (n.d.). Retrieved from World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org/hunger/malnutrition

Malnutrition in Haiti. (n.d.). Retrieved from Consider Haiti: http://www.considerhaiti.org/learn-about-haiti/malnutrition-in-haiti/