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[av_heading heading=’MALNUTRITION IN WV DROPS, BUT… Antique, Negros Occ. kids grapple with condition’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA and CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
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ILOILO City – Malnutrition among preschool children in Western Visayas has been on a downtrend for years.
But many children in the region continue to grapple with the condition most prevalent in Antique and Negros Occidental provinces.
The government hopes initiatives like supplementary feeding will help further lessen malnourished and underweight children.
Malnutrition prevalence among preschool children (0 to 71 months old) dropped to 4.68 percent this year from 5 percent in 2016, said Nona Tad-y, Regional Nutrition Program coordinator for the National Nutrition Council (NNC) Region 6.
Tad-y acknowledged that the decrease – as shown in their Regional Nutrition Situation 2017 report – was meager “pero manubo na [ang prevalence rate] kompara sa iban nga tuig.”
Data on malnutrition were gathered from all local government units in the region through Operation Timbang.
Every year the government targets a 1-percent drop in malnutrition prevalence among preschool children, said Tad-y.
While they failed to achieve the target this year – with only a .32-percent decrease – at least “there was an improvement,” she said.
Malnutrition in Western Visayas has been consistently decreasing since 2011, the NNC has noted.
From 7.59 percent that year, the rate lowered to 7.05 percent in 2012, 6.38 percent in 2013, 6.21 percent in 2014, 5.58 percent in 2015, 5 percent in 2016, and 4.68 percent this year, the agency said.
But progress is slow, if based only on the prevalence rate in the individual provinces.
Malnutrition among preschool children is most prevalent in Antique this year at 7.04 percent – notably higher than the regional rate.
In 2016, the province also had the highest prevalence rate in Western Visayas with 6.86 percent. In 2015, it had 8.02 percent.
Just like last year, Negros Occidental is second on the list this year with 5.79 percent. In 2016, it had 5.96 percent.
This year, Aklan has 5.09 percent and Iloilo, 3.88 percent. Tad-y said they were still gathering more data from Capiz and Guimaras.
Last year Iloilo had 4.79 percent; Aklan, 4.65 percent; Capiz, 4.38 percent; and Guimaras, 2.9 percent, NNC data showed.
“We want to see ano ang mga areas ang apektado kag ano ang pwede naton mahimo bilang miyembro sang nutrition committee, bilang local chief executives,” Tad-y said.
Currently the government – through the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2017-2022 – is giving particular attention to stunting.
Stunting is the nutritional condition wherein a child is short for their age.
“Ang target ta for 2022 nga ang prevalence sang stunting sa aton mga kabataan maga 21. 4 percent na lang from 33.4 percent in 2015,” said Tad-y.
For its part, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) hopes its Supplementary Feeding Program will help address child malnutrition.
Some beneficiaries receive once-a-day feeding but others are fed twice a day as recommended by the NNC, the DSWD said.
Aklan has 4,367 twice-a-day feeding beneficiaries with a funding of P13,625,040.
Antique has 12,320 with a P38,438,400 fund and Iloilo, 11,013 with P34,360,560, the department said.
Local government units gather potential beneficiaries by weighing them and sending their records to the DSWD./PN
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