About 75 per cent of malnourished kids in Adilabad owe their condition to Pica, an eating disorder characterised by a craving for dirt or chalk, or to short pregnancy spacing followed by their mothers.
Though efforts are being made to address the issue of malnourishment, not much has been done in terms of creating awareness on controlling Pica or encouraging parents to follow the ideal pregnancy spacing. “Creating awareness on these aspects is the most important step towards curbing malnutrition among children,” says Raj Pratheepa, Medical Officer at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), Utnoor.
The NRC handles 130 to 160 cases of child malnutrition as outpatients every month while 30 to 40 cases are admitted for treatment, with over 20 being in the category of Severe Acute Malnourishment (SAM), considered to be on the higher side. Since January this year, as many as 161 SAM cases out of a total of 218 inpatient malnourished children were treated at the NRC.
“Children of poor tribal people need special care as they easily take to eating dirt when their parents are away in the fields especially during the agriculture season. Awareness on superstitious beliefs on raising a male child should be created so that women do not go on delivering babies until a boy is born,” Dr. Pratheepa observes.
Meanwhile, the NRC has come to benefit poor tribal people having cured difficult cases through curing eating disorders in addition to providing nutritious food to malnourished children. “The treatment is decided based upon the result of an appetite test,” says NRC dietician Kumbam Aruna.
“Seven-month-old Bhudevi was brought here 28 days back when her weight only 2.1 kg. She now weighs 3.1 kg and looks more healthy,” the dietician continues, citing an example of a difficult case.
“We also treated three severely anaemic kids brought to the NRC a few weeks back with their haemoglobin percentage being just 2 gm. They have now made a complete recovery,” the Medical Officer adds.
