BAGUIO CITY — The National Nutrition Council (NNC) in the Cordillera has stepped up its efforts to curb malnutrition among infants in the region by making sure that mothers themselves are healthy during pregnancy.
“To combat stunting, the nutrition council came up with the ‘1,000 days Program’ that starts from the early stage of the pregnancy until the baby is born,” NNC Cordillera Coordinator Rita Papey told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.
She said the program aims to address the high rate of stunting, wasting, and also obesity among young children in the Cordillera. The upland region, she cited, recorded a stunting rate of 12.7 percent, the seventh highest among all regions in the country in 2017.
“This is alarming,” Papey remarked, noting, though, that the national prevalence rate of stunting is 31 percent.
The World Health Organization defines stunting or stunted growth as too low height for the age of a child, specifically, “less than two standard deviations of the WHO Child Growth Standards median”.
Papey said studies have revealed that the high prevalence of stunting among children in the Cordillera is due to poor health of mothers when they were pregnant.
Papey said the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Kalinga, and Tabuk City registered the highest prevalence of stunting in 2017 among children 0-50 months old.
Abra recorded an 18.56 percent prevalence rate, which is the highest in the region, followed by Tabuk City with 18.44 percent; Apayao, 18.27 percent; Kalinga, 17.51 percent; Mountain Province, 16.46 percent; Benguet, 9.9 percent; Ifugao, 9.44 percent; and Baguio City, 3.31 percent.
Papey said under-nutrition, due to lack of vitamins and minerals, results in wasting or low weight-for-height, stunting or low height-for-age, and underweight or low weight-for-age.
She said pregnant mothers in the Cordillera are now monitored and given vitamins and minerals supplements, as well as education on proper nutrition.
She added that expectant moms are also now given regular pre-natal checkups, with the help of Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS), who also help health agencies in the region reach out to mothers in the farthest sitios of mountain villages.
Papey said pregnant mothers are also taught the correct way of breastfeeding, urging them to breastfeed their babies to boost the infants’ immune system. The mothers are also taught how to feed their babies with complete nutrients.
Papey also noted that obesity is also a problem in Cordillera, as the region, she said, has the fifth highest rate of obesity in the country, particularly among 0-59 months-old children.
Again, the province of Abra had the highest obesity rate in the region, with 7.85 percent; followed by Tabuk City, 6.7 percent; Apayao, 6.34 percent; Kalinga, 5.13 percent; Mountain Province, 4.31 percent; Benguet, 1.68 percent; Ifugao, 1.5 percent; and Baguio, 0.88 percent.
Papey pointed out thst obesity, or over-nutrition, is also a form of malnutrition, signifying imbalances in the person’s intake of energy and nutrients, leading to diet-related non-communicable diseases.
To monitor the nutritional status of each province, the NNC in the region has launched “Operation Timbang”, an annual weight and height measurement of all preschoolers 0 to 71 months old or below six years old to identify and locate the malnourished children.
This would allow health personnel to provide vitamins and mineral supplements to the children, she said.
The children are also urged to eat a balanced diet with vegetables, she added.
“I encourage those people who are classified as obese or overweight to engage in physical activities, have a healthy diet,” she said. **Pamela Mariz Geminiano/ PNA
