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One-third of Indonesian children still suffer from stunting: Aid group
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Breast-feeding may help prevent stunting in children. (Shutterstock/-)
N
ine million or one-third of Indonesian children suffer from stunting, a condition where their height is lower than the standard for their age, said a development aid group official.
Iing Mursalin, associate director for the community-based Health and Nutrition to Reduce Stunting Project (CHNP) at Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Indonesia said that stunting was the most common form of malnutrition that could be found since birth and increases rapidly until a baby is 24 months old.
"The golden chance to decrease stunting is during the 1,000 first days of life, since fertilization to the age of two," he said during a recent talk show on the miracle of breast-feeding in Jakarta, adding that two of the possible causes of stunting were long term nutrients deficiency and repeated infections during the first 1,000 days of life.
(Read also: Mother-infant interaction smoothens breast-feeding: Expert)
"Children who don't suffer from stunting have higher productivity [later in life] by 20 percent more than those who do," he said.
The government, supported by MCA Indonesia, reportedly had made efforts to implement community-based health and nutrition projects to reduce stunting in around 6,000 designated villages. “The project also aims to reduce household expenditure through cost savings, growth in productivity and increase in earnings,” added Iing.
Fala Adinda Pringgayuda, a doctor specializing in lactation, explained that providing good nutrients, which ranges from nutrient intake during pregnancy and exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months, to giving supplementary food in breast-feeding, could help prevent stunting. "It's also recommended to give exclusive breast milk feeding for the first six months and then continuing it with the breast-feeding supplementary food," she said.
(Read also: Husbands play key role in breast-feeding: Expert)
Fala said that breast milk had sufficient nutrients for babies, including water, colostrum, lactose, protein and many more useful components so that mothers don’t need to feed their infant with anything else for the first six months.
However, there are not enough mothers breast-feeding exclusively in Indonesia, she added. “There is an increase per year, but it hasn't yet met the Health Ministry’s standard of 80 percent."
According to the ministry's data last year, the amount of breast-feeding in Indonesia had only reached 54.3 percent nationally.
A formative study by MCA Indonesia revealed that around 55 percent of respondents did not exclusively breast-feed due to various reasons, including inability to produce and worry that the baby might be hungry. "Around 43 percent of mothers think that breast milk isn’t enough to provide their children’s nutritional needs," he said. (kes)
