PARACELIS, Mountain Province — The Department of Health Center of Health Development (DOH-CHD) Cordillera under its Nutrition Program started a feeding program for nutritionally-at-risk pregnant women and undernourished under-five children in nine barangays in this town.
The Dietary Supplementation Program (DSP) aims to prevent low birth weight and stunting among under two years old children as preventive approach and to rehabilitate the undernourished child to the next higher or normal nutritional status as curative approach, explained. Candice Salingbay, Nutritionist Dietitian of DOH-CAR.
It is also intended to address issue on hunger and undernutrition, to advocate that dietary supplementation is an important strategy to address hunger and under nutrition, and to raise awareness among the community leaders to invest in nutrition.
The feeding program will run for 120 days from September-December 2019 during the lean season of the municipality. It involves the provision of rice porridge (chicken & champorado), choco-milk drink, oats (squash malunggay and banana), chicken egg, vegetable noodles to 160 pregnant women and 250 undernourished children.
Salingbay stressed that under the program, the time of feeding should not compromise regular feeding time nor encourage substitution or replacement of meals, but rather to supplement the current and preferably served around 9:00AM or 3:00PM.
The mode of feeding will depend on the Barangay Nutrition Committee. They may opt for centralized feeding (wet-feeding) or ration-based (goods are distributed to beneficiaries), she said.
Prior to the implementation of the feeding program, the DOH conducted orientation of local nutrition committee members, health workers, volunteers on the DSP.
Other preparatory activities included provision of hanging-type weighing scales and length/height boards for growth monitoring, re-assessment of weight and height of under five children as baseline for the program, and medical check-up and laboratory examination of beneficiaries.**JDP/MAWC – PIA CAR
