Child stunting rate declining

A new report shows Bangladesh’s childhood stunting rate has declined astonishingly.

The “State of Food Security and Nutrition in Bangladesh” released on Wednesday in Dhaka found the rate declined three percentage points in a year.

However, it did not look into the reasons.

The report came as a surprise as the reduction rate of stunting in the last decade was less than one percent a year in Bangladesh.

The BRAC University and Helen Keller International joint survey that measured more than 13,500 children below five years of age across Bangladesh found it was 37 percent in 2012.

The rate was 40 percent in its 2011 report.

Bangladesh is known for its “critical rate” of malnutrition, more than 40 percent, as per the World Health Organisation definition.

The Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), statistics of which are used in shaping policies, found 41 percent children were stunted in 2011.

The Wednesday’s report that also looked into the food security situation of household found better food security situation in the surveyed households, improved childhood feeding practices and declined in childhood infections rate.

“Together all those contributed to stunting reduction outcomes,” Dr Mohsin Ali, a Unicef nutritionist who was present at the report releasing ceremony, told bdnews24.com.

Stunting is the consequence of under-nutrition in the first 1,000 or so days of a baby's life, including during gestation.

It can lead to irreversible brain and body damage in children, making them more susceptible to illness and more likely to fall behind in school.

Unicef says stunted children learn less in school and are more likely to live in poverty and go on to have stunted children.

“It (stunting) is the real indicator of nutrition (of a country),” Dr Ali said. “It (the progress) means progress in multi-sectoral level”.

He said the new findings seem “ice began to melt after a long stagnation”.

“It is consistent with other developments,” he said, and that food security, infant feeding practices, hygiene and sanitation, and childhood infections are “key” issues that directly linked to the stunting growth.

The report, however, showed the rate varies from region to region.

Like many other health indicators, the rate of stunting children in the report is higher in Sylhet region than other divisions.

The rate was much lower in Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions.

It is lower in Padma chars zone and highest in the Haor zone where one-half of children sampled were stunted in both 2011 and 2012.