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Shorter periods of breast-feeding causing malnutrition in India
Shorter periods of breast-feeding leads to malnutrition at an early age among children living in Indian slums, according to the results of a study conducted in Pune, a rapidly growing city in India.
'Slum populations living in adverse conditions represent nutritionally vulnerable groups that need immediate attention,' Dr. Shobha Rao and colleagues write in the October issue of Indian Pediatrics.
Over a 2-year period, Rao and her team, from the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, studied changes in diet and illness in 845 preschool children in three Pune slums.
The average duration of exclusive breast-feeding was 3.5 months, a significantly shorter period than in rural areas, the investigators found.
The weights and heights of the slum children were satisfactory only up to the age of 4 months, and fell significantly below the standard levels by 6 months of age. During infancy, 22% of children were underweight and by 5 years of age more than 40% were underweight. Children were most likely to be malnourished at around 18 months of age.
Rao's group suggests that undernutrition after 4 months of age is probably attributable to the short duration of exclusive breast-feeding and lack of appropriate supplementary weaning foods.
The researchers also observed that rates of illness were higher in the youngest and least well-nourished children.
Also, lack of proper nutrient intake stunted the growth of the children, causing them to only reach heights 10 centimeters lower than standard values by 5 years of age, Rao and colleagues note. 'This highlights the importance of early life undernutrition, which may be responsible for shorter adult size in poor communities of India,' the team writes. |
