Poverty is a cause of malnutrition.
This, among others, was the finding of the Inabanga Municipal Nutrition Committee (MNC) that pre-evaluated the town's 50 barangays preparatory to the Provincial Nutrition Committee monitoring visit scheduled on June 3.
Halfway into its rounds now, the evaluators led by Municipal Health Officer Mae Lilibeth Melicor and composed of personnel from concerned departments and line agencies made Lapacan Sur their 26th barangay destination.
Critiquing the data presented by the barangay, the team discovered that from one malnourished child case, the number turned three last year of which only two children gained normal weight later. This year, four children have below normal weight.
The team discovered that apparently, the malnutrition cases were caused by lack of nutritious food. More often than not, this is aggravated by poor sanitation because the low family income can ill-afford toilets or build proper drainage. They do not practice proper garbage disposal either that in turn causes diseases and parasitism in the children.
The team recommended the planting of vegetables and root crops in the backyard. The nutritious and fresh food can nurse undernourished children back to health, raising their immunity levels. This means they will spend for medicine less, thereby staving off financial difficulties.
The evaluators vowed to conduct home visits to ensure that the beneficiaries have planted the vegetable seeds they distributed.
At the same time, the parents of undernourished children are also encouraged to attend the pabasa sa nutrisyon and Parents Effectiveness Seminar (PES) to enrich their own knowledge in rearing growing children.
Barangay Captain Elias Bautista thanked the group for pointing out their lapses.
"The team's comments and suggestions will be our benchmark to improve our documentation and in implementing interventions and solutions to solve the present nutrition problem in our community", he said in Cebuano.