Preventing child malnutrition: what are the most effective ways?

Preventing child malnutrition is essential if we want to improve children's overall well-being now and in the future. In fact, child malnutrition affects not only the physical side, but also the emotional and psychological.

In this context, there are various actions to avoid child malnutrition, which include education, the fight against poverty, the participation of nonprofit organizations, access to the health system and an adequate level of sanitation, among others.

So that you know the main characteristics of these mechanisms for preventing child malnutrition, we have written this Pata Pila article. As a result, you will learn more about the importance of working together to neutralize the effects of this social problem.

1. Education programs for good nutrition

One of the main paths to preventing child malnutrition is achieving good nutrition education. This is done through certain specific actions, listed below:

Nutrition education during pregnancy

The prevention of child malnutrition begins at gestation. Indeed, it is recommended to encourage healthy eating habits from the very early stages of pregnancy.

Here, the role of the health system and the professionals who come into contact with mothers, fathers and their families becomes vitally important. This is done through the following actions:

• Complete and regular perinatal check-ups to prevent child malnutrition.
• Regulation of the mother's body weight to avoid gestational diabetes and other health conditions that could affect the normal course of pregnancy.
• Intake of a sufficient amount of folic acid to avoid congenital malformations and achieve a healthy, full-term pregnancy. Iron, vitamins and calcium at appropriate levels are also recommended.
• Awareness of the central role of breast milk as a vehicle for immunization and fundamental nutrition during at least the first six months of life.

Education plans in primary and secondary socialization

Among the ways to prevent child malnutrition, we cannot fail to mention the importance of education within the home and throughout the path of training in formal institutions such as school.

From a social perspective, as a Statista report states, 30% of people in Latin America do not have enough to eat. Faced with this picture of poverty, it is necessary to strengthen the educational system through the following items:

• Carrying out family awareness campaigns about the importance of choosing early childhood foods. While it is true that the context of poverty makes it hard to fill a food basket for each family, good habits of healthy consumption can be instilled to avoid malnutrition in children.
• Giving families information about the role of medical consultations in preventing child malnutrition. This is done by monitoring weight and height, as well as by following the vaccination schedule.
• The family, considered an agent of primary socialization, must have the theoretical and practical knowledge to learn to detect symptoms of child malnutrition. In this way, the different health protocols can be activated to assist the child and their family.

2. Participation of nonprofit organizations

On the other hand, preventing child malnutrition is possible through the work of various NGOs. There are currently non-governmental institutions that carry out activities to prevent child malnutrition.

From Pata Pila's point of view, as its founder Diego Bustamante states in an Infobae article, there is a close relationship between child malnutrition and poverty. Structural poverty can be defined as the set of highly complex situations that include the lack of health professionals, not being able to access sanitation and drinking water systems, not having paved streets, and so on.

Based on this scenario, NGOs can put into action different ways to prevent child malnutrition, which we detail here:

• Design and implementation of programs to prevent malnutrition in children.
• Educational and psychological support for mothers, fathers and families.
• Creation of spaces where early childhood is cared for and families are given tools to contribute to good nutrition.

In summary, the mechanisms to prevent child malnutrition are effective ways to fight this social problem in the short, medium and long term.

If you want to fight child malnutrition in Argentina and help change the lives of more than 74 communities in Argentina, you can become part of Pata Pila's La Comunidad, through a monthly or one-time financial donation.

Good nutrition changes everything. Together, and with your contribution, we can change the future of many children who are going through moments of social vulnerability and change their future in a radical way.