Children’s Health

Genetic test could help identify kids at low-IQ risk

Researchers claimed to have developed a genetic test that could spot children with impaired thyroid function at risk of developing low IQ.

After studying the genetic and IQ data of 3123 children under 7 with a common gene variant, researchers found that those with thyroid hormone levels less than the normal range had a four-fold greater risk of having an IQ less than 85 if they also had reduced thyroid hormone levels, News.com.au reported.

Lead researcher Peter Taylor, from the University of Cardiff, said that kids with satisfactory thyroid hormone levels, together with the genetic variant, have normal IQ levels, which raises the possibility that children at risk could be treated with standard thyroid hormone tablets to compensate for impaired thyroid hormone processing.

Source: Business Standard

Is homework making your child sick?

New research shows that some students are doing more than three hours of homework a night — and that all that school work may be literally making them sick.

It may be tempting to dismiss this latest research, conducted in upper-middle-class areas, as yet another manifestation of the eccentricities of the affluent. This is, after all, the same demographic that recently brought us eye-roll-inducing news stories about $250-an-hour tutors who drill preschoolers on their ABCs and 1-2-3s.

Could it be that a few short years later those same tots have graduated to marathon homework sessions?
“The three hours of homework a night was an average, by the way,” says Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate

School of Education

The researchers sought to examine the relationship between homework load and student well-being and engagement, as well as to understand how homework can act as a stressor in students’ lives.

Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives.

And while some of the grousing about having too much homework and feeling stressed out may seem like typical adolescent complaints, this latest study joins a growing body of research that paints a disturbing tableau about the unrelenting pressure on privileged children.

That children growing up in poverty are at-risk for a number of ailments is both intuitive and well-supported by research. More difficult to believe is the growing consensus that children on the other end of the spectrum, children raised in affluence, may also be at risk.

“Parents’ first responsibility is to the health of their child,” Pope says. “Parents need to be advocates and cheerleaders, not graders and correctors. And you certainly don’t want to say to your kid, ‘Give me half of the homework!'”

Parents need to advocate for their children with the tools and numbers and research in hand. We’re talking about respectful dialogue.”

Source: CNN

10 things you should think about before buying for your baby

So your new born has arrived and you have made a comprehensive shopping list to get all the baby essentials at one go. But before you start to splurge, wait and think. Does your baby need all that is there on offer at the baby store? If you don’t have a definite answer read on to know about things you should never buy for your newborn or at least limit its usage. These products though make life a lot easier but come with some perils.

Here goes your ‘not-to-buy’ list.

Walkers: Did you know that prolong use of walkers can hamper the bone development in the legs and hips of your growing baby? ‘Your baby doesn’t need a walker but instead vitamin D from the sun and calcium from foods to develop strong bones and limbs to start walking soon. Babies start to walk without any support by 13 months of age. From around nine months onwards they can stand holding on to the sofa or the bed and take their first baby steps with some help. Parents often rush to buy a walker at this stage to make the process easy and fast. But putting your child into a walker is going to cause harm than any good as mentioned before,’ cautions Dr Rohit Agarwal, past president of the Indian Association of Pediatrics attached to Chandrajoyti Children’s Hospital, Mumbai. In fact due to the hazards these walkers pose to baby’s natural development many countries in the west like UK, Canada has banned the use of walkers for babies.

Pacifier: ‘They can lead to nipple confusion; hinder development of the oral cavity and teeth alignment in future, lead to colic and a host of other infections,’ says Dr Agarwal. Before you pick up this product just ask yourself why you need it. If you are picking up a pacifier because you want to free yourself from the demands of comfort suckling or soothe baby during teething it isn’t a very bright idea. A pacifier can help your baby soothe the aching gums and suckle for comfort but it has some hidden dangers attached to it with those instant solutions

Feeding bottles: Mommies don’t freak out at this. But believe us feeding bottles do a lot of harm to your baby than any good. Though there are recent studies that suggest that they aren’t as harmful as thought by the experts, but they still aren’t the best substitute of your breast. ‘One reason that you should not give the bottle is that your baby would suckle in large amounts of air along with the feed, which can then lead to colic. Also there is always a chance of infection with bottle feeding in case the bottles aren’t sterilized properly or the feeding nipple is contaminated,’ says Dr Agarwal. If at all you need to use feeding bottles make sure they are BPA-free and limit the usage to one or two feeds while you are out with your baby.

Electronic gadgets: They can cause damage to the cells in the brain. Sure you are not going to buy your newborn a mobile but limit its exposure to your baby. For the same reasons don’t use a tablet or iPad to read poems or short stories, invest in baby books. Limiting your own usage of gadgets at home especially around your baby will help them learn more from the environment sans the interference of harmful rays.

Gripe water: Many parents swear by this but not all doctors recommend using gripe water, even for a baby with colic. ‘Parents should refrain from using gripe water for babies, the ingredients used in the gripe water or also janam gutti, a traditionally used mixture for treating colic can in fact irritate the baby’s innards,’ says Dr Agarwal. If you are still optimistic on using gripe water for your baby talk to your pediatrician before buying one over the counter. Try not to give newborn babies gripe water unless advised by your pediatrician.

Kajal or kohl: Whether applying thick kajal or kohl under your baby’s eyes will ward off evil spirits is not known scientifically but it can cause those delicate orbs great damage. ‘Chemicals in these cosmetic products can cause allergic reactions in the eyes and interfere with your baby’s eye health,’ says Dr Agarwal

Diapers: Wondering how another of the baby essential item made it to this list? Well what experts suggest is that it would be ideal to keep baby off diapers and toilet train naturally. The mess would be bothersome for mothers, but being off diapers will help baby breathe easy and help keep painful diaper rashes at bay. ‘Practically this isn’t possible. So at least keep your baby off diapers while at home,’ says Dr Agarwal.

Stuffed toys: We aren’t telling you to ban them totally. But keep it off your newborn at least. The fur shed by these toys can give rise to breathing problems in babies and can also lead to SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome). Keep stuffed toys away from your toddler while sleeping to avoid any incidence of suffocation by accident.

Expensive fancy clothes: Cotton jhablas are the best bet for your babies. Do not get tees or dresses that need to be worn over the neck of your new born. Even with all your care and attention there can be unavoidable accidents.

Baby toiletries: Babies smell good by birth naturally. Don’t lather baby lotion or be tempted to use too much baby powder. The powder, if inhaled by your baby can reach the lungs and result in breathing troubles or irritation. Similarly lotions even with herbal ingredients can trigger skin rashes or allergies. As a thumb rule stay away from baby products that are high on fragrance, they are bound to be heavy on chemicals and allergens.

source: the health site

Electronic media associated with poorer well-being in children

The use of electronic media, such as watching television, using computers and playing electronic games, was associated with poorer well-being in children. Researchers noted that using electronic media can be a sedentary behavior and sedentary behavior is associated with adverse health outcomes, and may be detrimental at a very young age.

The authors of the new study used data from the European Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants (IDEFICS) study to examine the association of using electronic media between ages 2 and 6 years and the well-being of children two years later. Questionnaires were used to measure six indicators of well-being, including emotional and peer problems, self-esteem, emotional well-being, family functioning and social networks.

Among 3,604 children, electronic media use appeared to be associated with poorer well-being. Watching television appeared to be associated with poorer outcomes more than playing electronic games or using computers. The risk of emotional problems and poorer family functioning increased with each additional hour of watching TV or electronic game and computer use.

“Higher levels of early childhood electronic media use are associated with children being at risk for poorer outcomes with some indicators of well-being. … Further research is required to identify potential mechanisms of this association,” the authors have concluded.

Second Study Examines Monitoring of TV, Video Games With BMI
A second study published in JAMA indicates that more maternal monitoring of the time children spend watching TV or playing video games appears to be associated with lower body mass index (BMI).

Children’s media consumption (time spent in front of TVs and computers) is associated with childhood obesity, as many studies have found. However, parental influences, such as media monitoring, have not been effectively studied.

In this study, the authors examined the potential association of parental monitoring of their children’s exposure to media and general activities with the children’s BMI in an analysis that included 112 mothers, 103 fathers and their 213 children at age 5, 7 and/or 9 years.

The results showed that less monitoring by mothers of the time their children spent watching TV or playing video games appears to be associated with higher BMI for children at age 7 and increasing deviance from child BMI norms between the ages of 5 to 9 years. The finding was not evident for paternal monitoring.

“Low maternal media monitoring does not seem to reflect more general parent disengagement or lack of awareness regarding children’s behaviors and whereabouts. The association between lower maternal media monitoring and higher child BMI was primarily explained by a tendency for these children to spend more hours per week watching television and playing video games. This supports the validity of our interpretation that child media time has direct effects on BMI, is under substantial control by parents, and therefore is a prime target for family intervention,” the authors noted.

Source: Science daily

Parents’ habits may be to blame for child’s child’s obesity

The infant feeding and activity practices of many parents are putting children at risk for childhood obesity, a study suggests.

New research suggests parents may be largely to blame for increasing their child’s risk for obesity later in life due to infant feeding, TV and activity practices.

Over one third of children and adolescents were found to be overweight or obese in 2012.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine were led by Dr. Eliana M. Perrin in an obesity prevention trial named “Greenlight.” The trial took place at four medical centers across the U.S., including Vanderbilt University, the University of Miami, UNC and New York University.

The study analyzed 863 low-income parents and their babies, assessing both their feeding behaviors and activity practices. Most of the parents involved in the study (86 percent) were on Medicaid.

The study found that all parents analyzed used infant feeding and activity practices that are linked to some capacity to the onset of obesity later on in life.

When it came to feeding, about 45 percent of the parents involved in the study exclusively formula-fed their infants, while only 19 percent exclusively breastfed their infants. About 43 percent of the parents put their infants to bed with their bottles, and 23 percent allowed their babies to feed on their own with the bottles propped up, which can lead to over-feeding.

Around 38 percent of the parents encouraged their babies to finish their milk, and 20 percent soothed their crying babies with a bottle.

As far as activity practices, it was found that approximately 90 percent of the infants had been exposed to watching TV, with about 50 percent of babies being intentionally placed in front of the TV by their parents so they could watch it.

Past research has identified a link between watching TV and childhood obesity. In fact, kids with their own televisions in their rooms have a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese.

The findings were recently published in the journal Pediatrics.

Source: The state column

Cutting and self-harm: Is your kid doing it?

When you think about cutting – one form of self harm – what likely comes to your mind is an emotionally unstable teenage girl who cuts her forearms with razor blades. However, self-injurious behavior can be much more subtle, and in turn, much more difficult to detect and address. That’s why it’s so important to know how and why it happens and where you can find help.

What is cutting and self harm?

Self harm is intentionally harming oneself, oftentimes with the objective of alleviating suffering. Examples of self harm include cutting the skin with objects, scratching the skin, picking wounds so they can’t heal, biting or burning oneself, and more harmful instances that include hitting one’s head or breaking bones. Of the many types of self harm, cutting is the most common. It damages the skin or other tissues, it is rarely associated with suicide attempts, and it is socially unacceptable. People who cut themselves may attempt to hide the marks or scars, and they may give false explanations for how they occurred (e.g., being scratched by a pet). Teens use many different items to cut (e.g., razor blades, scissors, pens, bottle tops, etc.), and it occurs in a variety of body locations (e.g., arms, legs, genital area, abdomen, etc.).

Who is most likely to cut?
Young people of all ethnicities, ages, and income levels intentionally harm themselves. Cutting is most common among adolescent, Caucasian females who come from intact, middle- to upper-class families. Self-injurious behavior oftentimes begins during middle school, and young people are often introduced to it through peer groups and media outlets (e.g., music, television, internet, etc.).

How common is it?
Approximately one out of every eight people engages in some form of self harm, and currently, it’s more widespread than it has been in prior decades. Among people who have mental illnesses, it is more common, affecting approximately one out of every four people.

Why do people intentionally injure themselves?
It is unclear why people cut themselves; some explanations include impulsivity, a way to distract from personal pain, feelings of control and peer pressure. If a person is cutting or engaging in any other form of self harm, a mental health professional should be consulted. Professionals will use interview techniques to identify reasons why it may be occurring and to provide interventions for effective treatment.

What are the risk factors and signs to watch for?
It is important to remember that each adolescent who cuts is different and not all start or continue for the same reason. In addition, some individuals who cut may not show any of the warning signs. If you believe or know that your child is cutting, it is important to seek professional assistance to assess the reasons why the cutting is occurring and to begin appropriate treatment. Here are some risk factors and signs that have been associated with cutting among adolescents:

Risk Factors

  • Knowledge that friends or acquaintances are cutting
  • Difficulty expressing feelings
  • Extreme emotional reactions to minor occurrences (anger or sorrow)
  • Stressful family events (divorce, death, conflict)
  • Loss of a friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, or social status
  • Negative body image
  • Lack of coping skills
  • Depression

Signs

  • Wearing long sleeves during warm weather
  • Wearing thick wristbands that are never removed
  • Unexplained marks on body
  • Secretive or elusive behavior
  • Spending lengthy periods of time alone
  • Items that could be used for cutting (knives, scissors, safety pins, razors) are missing

What should you do?

If you become aware that your child is engaging in self-injurious acts, remember that it is fairly common. Though it is often frightening for parents, the majority of teens who cut themselves do not intend to inflict serious injury or to cause death. If the injury appears to pose potential medical risks, contact emergency medical services immediately. If the injury doesn’t appear to pose immediate medical risks, remain calm and nonjudgmental, contact your child’s pediatrician to discuss the concerns, and ask for a referral to a trained mental health professional who has experience in this area.

Source : Parenting

 

TV time linked to less sleep for kids

The more television children watch, the less total sleep they’re getting, according to a small Spanish study.

Researchers found that a nine-year-old who watched five hours of television a day, for example, slept an average one hour less a night than a nine-year-old who watched television for less than an hour and a half a day, lead author Marcella Marinelli, from the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, told Reuters Health.

The study team followed some 1,700 children for up to three years and found those who increased their TV time got even less sleep as they grew up.

“This study really demonstrated that kids who watch a lot of television and continued to do so continued to have a trajectory of less sleep than they should have,” said Christina Calamaro, from the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, who was not involved in the research.

Marinelli and her colleagues write in JAMA Pediatrics that theirs is the first study to examine the relationship over years between the amount of time toddlers and school-age children spend watching television and the amount they spend sleeping.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates the average child spends eight hours a day in front of a screen. AAP recommends that parents limit kids’ daily screen time to one or two hours.

Pre-school age children need a total of 11 to 12 hours of sleep a day and school-aged kids need at least 10 hours a day, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Using data from a larger health study, Marinelli’s team assessed the sleep and television habits of 1,713 children in two Spanish cities and on the Mediterranean island of Menorca.

In the cities of Sabadell and Valencia, researchers asked parents how much time their children slept and how much TV they watched when they were two years old and again when they were four years old. In Menorca, researchers questioned the parents of children when they were six years old and again at nine years old.

The researchers categorized children who watched less than an hour and a half a day of television as “shorter” TV viewers and those who watched more than that as “longer” viewers.

TV viewing times at the beginning of the study period ranged from zero to a maximum of eight hours a day, though the median viewing time was about one hour a day. Sleep times ranged from three to 20 hours a day initially, but the median was about 12 hours for two-year-olds, 10 hours for four-year-olds and 11 hours for the six-year olds.

At all points, kids who were longer viewers got less sleep than kids who were shorter viewers.

Median sleep times dropped by about two hours during the two-to-three year follow-up period for all age groups. But kids who increased their TV viewing during that period lost even more sleep time than the others – an average of 20 percent.

Children who reduced their viewing time during follow-up tended to get more sleep, but that result could have been due to chance, the researchers note.

Marinelli’s team did not look at what kinds of shows the children watched on television, what times of day they watched or where the TVs were located. Their study cannot prove that TV viewing caused the differences seen in sleep times or explain why that might be.

One recent study found slightly older kids, aged 11 to 13, slept significantly less when they frequently watched television before hitting the sack (see Reuters Health story of January 24, 2014 here: reut.rs/1fjXJnq).

The researchers adjusted their findings for other factors that might influence the results – including the kids’ gender, weight, exercise, symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, whether children slept alone or with others, humidity in their bedrooms and the age of their mattresses. Researchers also adjusted for parents’ marital status, educational level and psychopathological symptoms.

“They controlled for all the right variables, and television popped out,” Calamaro said.

“We are not paying attention to how much technology children are using and how much television children are watching and what it’s doing to their sleep.”

Calamaro agreed with the study authors, who theorized that fast-paced television images could disrupt children’s brain development or might cut children’s motivation to play, exercise, draw and do other things that enhance neurodevelopment. She said television time could also simply displace sleep time.

Calamaro stressed the importance of playtime and sleep to children’s development.

“This paper really says, wait a minute, when television viewing starts young, it continues to be an issue for children’s sleep as they get older. It feeds into parents’ need to limit technology at an early age,” she said.

Marinelli said she only allows her three-year-old daughter to watch educational television and limits her to no more than half an hour a day.

“Parents must control the use of television especially in very young children and also the use of other devices, for example mobile phones,” she said.

Source; reuters

Surprise: Doc says iPads may be OK for babies

A doctor who helped write guidelines discouraging media use by babies and toddlers says he’s had second thoughts about the iPad and other devices.

Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, a Seattle pediatrician who studies the effect of media on children, now says that kids younger than 2 may actually benefit from 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day of screen time — as long as it’s interactive, not passive.

“I believe that the judicious use of interactive media is acceptable for children younger than the age of 2 years,” he wrote in an opinion piece this week in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

It’s a somewhat surprising position for the researcher who admits he’s developed a reputation as the “anti-TV guy,” especially when it comes to the youngest viewers. He co-authored the American Academy of Pediatrics 2011 guidelines that frown on media use by kids younger than 2.

In the new piece, however, Christakis notes that the guidelines, updates of 1999 recommendations, were written before the 2010 debut of Apple’s iPad and the slew of tablets and devices that followed.

“The statement was drafted with no knowledge that such a device would ever exist,” wrote Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

“Now, 3 years later, we still know surprisingly little about how iPads and other interactive media technologies affect children’s cognition — research is simply unable to keep up with the pace of technological advances —and these devices are increasingly popular.”

Even without hard data, however, Christakis said he has concluded that interactive iPad and device apps that engage a baby may be as mentally stimulating as old-fashioned toys such as blocks or even a See ‘N’ Say, which allows kids to develop a sense of accomplishment by matching animal images and sounds.

They’re all very different than passive television viewing, which is known to have detrimental effects on cognition, or videos or DVDs aimed at babies, which can be overstimulating and potentially harmful, Christakis said.

That’s a view echoed by Elizabeth R. Sowell, a neuropsychologist at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She told TODAY that guidelines based on TV viewing aren’t comparable to those for interactive screen time on devices used by babies and toddlers.

“The brain is developing so rapidly during that period of time and interactive challenges, whether it’s blocks or playing games on the iPad, that’s really going to wire the brain differently than passive viewing,” said Sowell, who is also principal investigator at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Both Christakis and Sowell cautioned that parents need to closely monitor their babies’ screen time. Just as there have been problems with too much internet use in older kids and teens, there’s the danger of “compulsive use of iPads” among the youngest users.

And, iPad or other device use should never interfere with the full range of social, physical and other activities that babies need to develop, Christakis added.

“I do hope parents will take to heart that they should put some limits on it,” he said. “This is not just to allow their child to play willy-nilly for hours and hours.”

Source: Today

When Smartphone Is Near, Parenting May Falter

Mealtime is supposed to be family time, but a new study suggests that ever-present smartphones are impeding parent-child communication at the table.

Researchers who observed more than 50 family-type groups eating out found a significant number of adults were preoccupied with their smartphones.

“We know from decades of research that face-to-face interactions are important for cognitive, language and emotional development. Before mobile devices existed, mealtime would’ve been a time where we would’ve seen those interactions,” said study author Dr. Jenny Radesky, a fellow in developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Boston Medical Center.

It’s unclear how much of an impact parents’ smartphone use will ultimately have on a child’s development, and whether that effect will have a negative, positive or neutral impact, said the researchers.

One basic thing that may be affected is child vocabulary, said Dr. Rahil Briggs, director of pediatric behavioral health services at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. “The single most powerful predictor of a child’s vocabulary is conversations with the child. Dinnertime is an important time for those conversations, and if you’re absorbed with your phone, that’s a lost opportunity.”

Briggs added that social, emotional and conversational skills might also be affected if parents spend too much time looking at their phones and other media.

“What really concerned me was those children who appeared to accept this lack of engagement. It seemed like they’d given up,” noted Briggs, who wasn’t involved with the research.

To capture a snapshot of how parents use their phones around their children at mealtime, Radesky and her colleagues visited Boston-area fast food restaurants and observed groups that included at least one adult and one or more children who looked younger than 10. They took detailed notes on how caregivers — which likely included parents, grandparents and babysitters — used their smartphones and how children responded.

They conducted 55 observations last summer. Forty caregivers took out their phones at some point during the meal. A few kept it on the table, but didn’t appear to use it. Another small group kept their phones in their hands while doing other things.

The largest group — 16 caregivers — seemed totally absorbed by their phones, using them continuously, even eating and talking while looking at the phone. In most cases, it appeared the caregivers were using the phones’ keyboards or making swiping motions on the phones rather than making phone calls.

Another nine caregivers used their devices intermittently, and then put the phone away. The researchers said these caregivers appeared to balance use of the device and paying attention to the child or children.

While the adults used their phones, some school-aged children were busy eating, talking to another child or playing with the toy that came with their meal, and didn’t seem concerned that the caregiver was on a device, especially if it was for a short period of time.

Source: webmd

Malnutrition On the Rise for Children in the North

Some 100,000 children, including Nigerian refugees fleeing attacks from the extremist sect Boko Haram, are suffering from acute malnutrition in northern Cameroon. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Health officials and United Nations agencies have been visiting the children and are promising assistance.

Badyne Mansto cries as her five-year-old child is buried near her house in Maroua, northern Cameroon. She told VOA the child lost weight and died at a private hospital two hours after she was admitted. She blamed the staff for not attending to her immediately when she arrived.

Hospital staff say they are overwhelmed. Mamha Catherine is one of them.

“As you can see, there are so many patients than we can attend to. We lack infrastructure, we lack staff, so what is certain is that some of the children whose lives may have been saved will end up dying,” she said.

Dire situation

Aiida Maimonatou, who is at the hospital with her baby, is getting impatient. She said when her first child was not well, she took him to a traditional healer and he died. Now she has brought her second child to the hospital because the government is asking people not to go for traditional treatment. But, she says, “since I came here, nobody has attended to me.”

Among the malnourished children are Nigerian refugees fleeing from the Islamist militant sect Boko Haram. At their camp in Menowo in Mayo Tsanaga Division where 7,000 refugees live, more than 300 children are suffering.

Comfort Manda, who said she fled Borno State, said she has lost a child to malnutrition.

“My brother, it is very difficult. I don’t know what to tell you, but the situation that I met here is so deplorable that I don’t know what to do now,” said Manda. “I came in from Nigeria and my two children are sick, I have taken them to the hospital and find it difficult to provide their medicine. One of them already died and I am still struggling with one of them. I do not know what will happen at the end. Added to this, there is no food, there is no water and when children are sick they drink a lot of water. We are not able to have even water to give our children. It is very difficult.”

Dr. Ndansi Elvis said the crisis is aggravated because refugees have to compete with the local population for food and water.

“These people come and there is competition for food. And when there is competition for food, there is also limited supply and the prices go up. And there is the problem of early marriages. You will not expect that a 17-year-old who has a child actually understands the nutritional needs of a child as much as a mature woman,” said Elvis.

“It’s astonishing that this is a public health problem but little attention is given to it. I go through the budget of the Ministry of Public Health for this year and I don’t think that even up to 500 million CFA franc [$1 million] has been allocated for any program as far as malnutrition is concerned,” Elvis continued.

Jean Mark Eding of Doctors Without Borders said a number of factors are contributing to the increasing number of malnourished children this year.

“The first thing is the absence or insufficient food for the children,” he said. “There are also environmental factors, like droughts, floods, dykes that give way, insects that destroy crops and reduce food production.”

UNICEF says large sectors of Cameroon’s population lack access to basic health services, safe water, sanitation facilities and basic education. The agency is appealing for funds to prevent and combat malnutrition. Its officials and other United Nations agencies have been visiting the malnourished children and promising to help as soon as they get the funds.

Source: All Africa