Malnutrition leads to many risks

Dr. Mahmoud Buzu, nutrition consultant, spoke with "Arabs Today” explaining the severity of severe malnutrition, most common among young children. He explained that malnutrition leads to kidney disorders and heart problems, and spoke about the treatment of the disease and the development of a healthy diet for children: Q: What causes severe malnutrition in children? A:  Failure to follow scientific principles in child nutrition, including the occurrence of some diseases that affect children and lead to loss of a healthy appetite. A severely malnourished child loses all the adipose tissue in the body which holds the skin and will experience atrophy of muscles dulling eye and hair color. The child can suffer sever emaciation which makes him/ her vulnerable to infections. Q: What are the infections that affect the child in this time? A: these can include severe diarrhea, lung infections, urinary tract infections and meningitis. Q: Are there dangers that face a severely malnourished child? A:  Being severely malnourished exposes the child to a variety of dangers due to the gradual loss of minerals from the body. Renal functions and the heart are disturbed and the child is subjected to very low heat. Q: What about the cure? A:  The children's section in the hospital in Damascus receives severely malnourished children who are treated in the emergency room to save their lives. Liquid treatment is specifically administered to the section via a nasal tube nasal until the child becomes able to drink a healthy amount and the building of muscle, skin and adipose tissue gradually resumes. The lives of most of the children received in the hospital in Damascus are saved. The cure rate is 95% and the children continue to stay in the hospital about 12 days then can leave the hospital recovered in most cases. Q:  Is there a special diet for the child? A:  A special diet is created for the child after leaving the hospital to prevent a relapse of the disease. It is also recommended that the a system is established to regularly  check the child to protect against a relapse, most of the children come in very young- aged less than a year. It seems that the disease tends to occur in environments with low potential but have high number of children per family. Statistics indicate that parents of affected children are often young and uneducated. The diseases most often affects the youngest child in the family. Statistics also suggest that stopping breastfeeding is directly correlated with the development of the disease, its increase and its severity.