Malnutrition stunts growth of 10 million Chinese children
A child who has special needs, with his teacher. (Photo/Xinhua)
There are at least 10 million children of preschool age in China suffering from stunted growth due to malnutrition, the second-highest number in the world behind India. The situation for babies six to 11 months old could deteriorate if action is not taken.
A UNICEF report reveals that in 2009, 40% of children in China's rural areas suffered from growth retardation. In its 2010 report, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the growth retardation rate for children in China under the age of five stood at 9.9% overall, including 3.4% in urban areas and 12.1% in rural areas.
A representative for UNICEF in China said that growth retardation is caused by malnutrition from pregnancy to the time when a child is two years old and the effects are irreversible. Growth retardation refers to children with height significantly lower than the standard height of the average of 97% of children of the same gender in the same age group, according to the definition of the World Health Organization.
UNICEF's statistics show that there are 180 million children with growth retardation worldwide in 2009. In 2006, China had 12.7 million children with the condition, again second highest in number behind India. Nigeria was third, followed by Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Congo, the Philippines and Tanzania. In Afghanistan, 59% of children under five had stunted growth, the highest percentage in the world.
The Chinese government has invested only limited resources in the malnutrition problem for children aged two and under.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevision reports that the percentage of children aged the age of one year in impoverished rural areas remained unchanged during 2008-2009 but dropped to the 2005 level in 2010. The percentage of babies from six to 11 months with growth retardation doubled from 2008's 6.7% to 2009's 12.5% before dropping slightly to 12.1% in 2010.
Chang Suying, a nutritional expert with UNICEF, notes that Chinese society invests its resources in addressing the nutritional issues of college students and students of elementary and high-school age, while leaving the nutritional needs of infants under five to families. Yet it is essential to tackle malnutrition at an earlier age, Chang said.
To address the problem, UNICEF has been providing nutritional packages to children from impoverished backgrounds in some villages in China's western province of Qinghai. The results have been encouraging, prompting the provincial government to appropriate 10 million yuan (US$1.58 million) to extend the program to the entire province from 2011.
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