Did You Know That 1 In 5 Malaysian Children Are Stunted?

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When you see a very tall person, you’d immediately assume that they must come from a family of very tall people as well. That’s a common misconception.

Many people still believe that a child’s height is determined by genetics, but genetics only contribute 20%, which is a small portion of a child’s physical growth—nutrition plays a bigger role. A lot of parents fail to realise that nutrition affects up to 80% of their children’s growth in the first five years, based on a study by Jelenkovic et al¹.

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In fact, Malaysian children are increasingly experiencing faltered growth and stunting. According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019, it was recorded that 21.8% (1 in 5 children) below five years old are stunted, which is an increase from 17.7% in 2015 and 16.6% in 2011².

What is faltered growth and stunting?

Faltered or faltering growth means that a child is growing in height and/or weight at a slower rate than expected according to age and gender.

Stunting refers to the impaired growth and development that a child may experience due to poor nutrition, repeated infected and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

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Moreover, UNICEF’s ‘Children Without’ 2018 study found stunting at 22% among the urban poor in Malaysia³. Having said that, stunting doesn’t choose between ethnicities, income levels, education levels, states or urban-rural living.

If this issue is left unaddressed, the height deficit in the first five years of a child’s life can reach up to 8cm! This has long term impacts on the health, education and productivity outcomes in children as height is a long term indicator of a child’s nutritional status.

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Despite the concerning situation, it’s not too late for parents to check and measure to ensure that children achieve the optimal growth potential.

What can parents do to prevent faltered growth and stunting among their children?

As mentioned, nutrition plays a fundamental and important role for children to reach optimal growth. So, parents must always keep a mind to provide a complete and balanced diet for their kids, especially in their early stages in life.

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Good mealtime habits and meal plans are all part and parcel of a good diet. You can refer to the dietary guidelines and sample meal plans here if you need some ideas.

Besides nutrition, parents should also practise good hygiene habits with their children, especially in times like this when staying clean and healthy is more important than ever. More playtime—at least one hour of physical activity daily—can also encourage children to be more active and aid in the development of their muscle and bones.

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Pair these solutions with the right child nutritional supplement that can address growth problems, then a child’s physical, emotional and psychological development will be more complete in the long term.

If you’re looking for a nutrition drink to complement your child’s diet and growth, there’s PediaSure. It comes in Vanilla and Chocolate variants, as well as a newly launched Plain flavour with 0% Sucrose for parents who prefer a less sweet option for their children.

PediaSure offers measurable and demonstratable results of a child’s physical growth that are supported by scientific studies. You can expect to see improvements in your child’s appetite within four weeks, visible physical growth in eight weeks, and less sick days in 16 weeks^4,5.

Image via PediaSure

If you’re not sure about how to check whether your child’s growth is on the right track, you can do so at any pediatric clinic or by logging on to PediaSure’s website.

For more info about short term and long term impacts of faltered growth and how to help your children experience healthy physical development, click here.

References:

1. Jelenkovic, A. et al. Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts. Sci. Rep. 6, 28496; doi: 10.1038/srep28496 (2016).
2. National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019. Institute for Public Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ministry of Health Malaysia; 2020.
3. UNICEF, Children Without, 2019.
4. Huynh DTT et al. J Hum Nutr Diet (2015), 28, 623-635, Longitudinal growth and health outcomes in nutritionally at-risk children who received long-term nutritional intervention.
5. Huynh DTT et al. 5^th International Conference on Nutrition & Growth 2018. Oral nutritional supplementation improved linear growth in Filipino children at nutritional risk.