Malnutrition menaces C. Java children
Malnutrition menaces C. Java children
By Haryoso
SEMARANG (JP): Sumirah is daydreaming. The 36-year-old mother
is wishing that the days when she could properly feed her two
under-5 children were back.
"Every day, I ask myself what I can give my children to eat,"
she said numbly while watching the children, aged 2 and 4, play
in front of their humble house in Rembang, some 100 kms east of
here.
Her husband is a pedicab driver who earns a mere Rp 3,000 (30
U.S. cents) a day. The income is far from enough to support the
family of four with the price of rice having soared as high as Rp
4,000 per kilo.
"Often, my husband and I have to eat cassava so that we can
have money to buy rice and tempeh for the children," she said.
"We will do everything to ensure they don't get skinny."
The Suparlans, Sumirah's neighbors, are in the same boat. The
parents eat cassava as the economic crisis bites deeper. Rice is
only for their three children.
"My wife and I can stand hunger and we don't want to see our
children underfed and have distended bellies," said Suparlan, a
hawker of children's bamboo toys.
The deteriorating economic abyss has left him wondering how
his family can survive and how his children, in their tender
years, can grow normally if they lack vital nutrition.
Fear of widespread malnutrition due to the worsening crisis,
especially among children, has been voiced by M. Sulaiman, a
nutritionist of Kariadi General Hospital, Semarang.
He estimated that most of the about eight million children
under 5 in Central Java are vulnerable to the threat unless the
crisis is over very soon.
"If the crisis lingers on, more and more people won't be able
to afford to buy basic needs," he noted.
The Kariadi Hospital is currently treating four malnourished
children.
"They are getting better because their parents admitted them
to the hospital at an early stage," said Sulaiman.
Experts say that late medical treatment could result in death
or, at least, serious physical disabilities because vital organs
are already affected.
Sulaiman noted that the soaring prices have catapulted prices
of protein and vitamin-rich foods such as eggs, milk, meat and
fish. Many parents have substituted cassava and rice curry.
"The best way to overcome the problem would be for the
government to lower prices of basic commodities," he said.
Pediatrician Satoto, of Diponegoro University, Semarang, said
there is no doubt the continuing economic crisis would be
catastrophic to the health of children from poor families.
He likened the present condition to that of the 1950s. He
recalled that children who enrolled in primary school in the
1970s, when the economy had recovered, were taller than children
in the 1950s.
Satoto proposed that for animal protein, people from the low-
bracket groups eat fish, which is cheaper than meat.
"But, the best solution would be to lower the prices of food,"
he said, noting that malnutrition would also affect pregnant
women and fetuses.
Nutritionist Fatimah Muis, also from Diponegoro University,
warned that malnutrition has "serious" consequences for the
fetus.
Physically, one defect will be apparent from the newborn's low
birth weight, usually less than 2.5 kilograms, she said. If
malnutrition continues for nine months, the baby will be highly
vulnerable to infection.
As the child grows it will very likely have lower intelligence
and a smaller physique, she said.
Reports about the growing malnutrition problem have prompted
the Central Java provincial health authorities to provide food
for impoverished families.
The provincial health office's chief, Sri Astuti, said the
government has been providing food supplements to pregnant women,
nursing women and children in poor families.
"The government has been providing pregnant women and workers
suffering from anemia with iron tablets, and children under 5
with iodine capsules and Vitamin A," she said.
People here, and everywhere, share a common hope: an end to
the economic crisis so that they can afford to buy basic
foodstuffs, enough for a decent living.