Under nourishment child recovered

  Sarah’s Doctor said; under nutrition is a consequence of consuming little energy and other essential nutrients, or excreting them more rapidly than they can be replaced. This state of malnutrition is often characterized by infection and disease. It occurs during either pregnancy or before the age of 2 years of age. It may result in permanent metal development and intensifies the effect of every disease. Young children less than 3 years are most vulnerable to malnutrition. Beyond the age of 2 – 3 years, the effects of chronic malnutrition are irreversible. This means that to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty and malnutrition, children at risk must be reached during their first two years of life. Child malnutrition is the biggest contributor to under-five slow recovery from illness. Children who are already under nourished can suffer from protein-energy malnutrition when rapid growth, infection or disease increases the need for protein. 

Sarah a survivor from low-birth-weight (a pre-mature at the 7^th month of pregnancy), unfortunately before the age of 2 years of age, she suffered from growth retardation and illness throughout her childhood. She was abandoned by her parents at the age of 2 months to a grandmother. As time went on, she showed symptoms such as a short height, extremely thin arms and legs and red/yellow hair. Anemia, diarrhea and fluid electrolyte disorder was common (electrolytes help to control fluid levels in the body, maintain normal Ph levels, and ensure the correct electric potential between nerve cells that enables the transmission of nerve signals). She did not reach her optimum height or consistently experience bouts of weight loss neither reached her optimum size as an adult hence had less physical capacity for work. Her body’s immune system was often weakened; behavioral development was slow and mental development retardation occurred.

Undernourishment is most often due to not enough high quality available to eat. This is often related to high food prices and poverty. She lacked breastfeeding at her tender age as a result contributed to a number of infectious diseases such as pneumonia and gastroenteritis which increase nutrient requirements. She received a severe malnutrition complication which was recommended by treatment within hospital.

Her treatment was designed to: improve adequate nutrition, restore normal body composition, and cure the condition that caused the deficiency. She recovered completely, without a variety of lifelong impairments, including an inability to properly absorb nutrients in their intestines.  

When I talked to a doctor before putting her on any kind of diet, such as vegan, vegetarian, or low carbohydrate; the doctor assured that the child gets the full supply of nutrients that she needs.