THE Cebu City Health Department Nutrition Office said that stunting after two years old is irreversible and noted that the prevalence rate of severely stunted children increased this year compared to 2022.
City Health Nutrition officer and Nutrition Program coordinator Allan Daag said that “based on the data (Operation Timbang), at least makuha nato ang mga number of normal children, those who had issues like the underweight, stunted and the wasted nato and then so the overweight and then the obese kay we still consider that also a form of malnutrition.”
(Based on the data (Operation Timbang), at least we can get the number of normal children, those who had issues like underweight, stunted and wasted and then the overweight and then the obese because we still consider that also as a form of malnutrition.)
Operation Timbang (OPT) is an annual three-month activity conducted from January until March by barangay health workers and city nutrition scholars. It measures the height and weight of all children 0-5 months old or five years old and below to determine their nutritional status.
The activity also includes all 80 barangays from the 85 health centers in Cebu City.
The nutrition situation, according to the nutritional status of children 0-59 months this year, showed that there was an increase in prevalence of underweight (weight for age) and severely stunted (height for age) compared in 2022.
It added that severely stunted children decreased from 1.98 percent in 2021 to 1.79 percent in 2022, and then to 1.95 percent as of July 2023.
Underweight children have a prevalence rate of 2.36 percent in 2021, then it increased by two percentage points in 2022, and at 2.63 percent in 2023.
For severely wasted (weight for length/height) or children with severely acute malnourished syndrome, there was a decrease in the prevalence rate with 0.85 percent in 2021 and 0.95 percent in 2022 to 0.27 percent in 2023. It, however, is still labeled an emergency case and needs proper medical attention, said the nutrition office.
“They think that it’s not enough kuno ang breastfeeding. Actually, the truth is enough gyud siya. It’s God’s gift jud na for the children so they have to have at least six months of exclusive breastfeeding,” said Daag.
(They think that breastfeeding is not enough, but the truth is it is really enough. It's God's gift for the children so they have to have at least six months of exclusive breastfeeding.)
He added that it is considered the golden window of opportunity as all of the development of the child depends on the first 1,000 days of nutrition of the child and the mother.
Meanwhile, he said that wasting or acute malnutrition is usually caused by sudden changes in food security.
Daag said they gave out Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for children who are affected by Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), and Ready to Use Supplementary Food for Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). He said the food is in a sachet form containing 500 calories.
“What we give to the child especially ang MAM nato is we give one sachet per day and that’s for three months and for SAM, we give two sachets of the RUTF for three months also,” he added.
He said there is a transparent improvement in the prevalence of malnutrition upon doing the RUTF intervention. (Kimberly Goc-ong, CNU Intern)