Malnutrition in children under 5 years old: Causes and remedies

Malnutrition in children under 5 years old always makes many parents worry and find many ways to overcome them. However, if you do not find the exact cause, you can hardly help your baby out of underweight.

Causes of malnutrition in children 

Eating not enough

Insufficient nutrition is one of the most common causes of malnutrition among children under 5 years old. Some parents or caregivers of a baby do not have enough knowledge in the care and raising of young children.

Your baby's caregiver may have fed your baby for too little for the nutritional needs the body needs. For example, some children are active and consume a lot of energy.

If the mother does not care about this, you can ignore the nutritional needs needed to support the child's physical and brain development.

Early introduction of solids is also a common cause of imbalance in a child's diet. Because many mothers have the misconception that the sooner they feed their babies, the stronger and healthier they will be.

At the same time, the weaning menu does not have 4 food groups, lack of vegetables or just feeding the broth without eating food also makes the baby's body not tolerated enough nutrition.

Therefore, if you do not have experience in this matter, you should consult more reputable information or consult your doctor to have a balanced and scientific diet for your child.

Suffering from infectious diseases

Some diseases that young children are susceptible to are diarrhea, respiratory infections. In particular, formula-fed babies have a higher risk of disease than normal babies.

When sick, the pet will stop eating and eat much less. In addition, taking antibiotics for the treatment has accidentally killed the beneficial bacteria in the child's intestinal tract, leading to prolonged gastrointestinal disturbances.

This makes your baby feel uncomfortable, lazy to eat, if he eats, the body cannot fully absorb nutrients, leading to malnutrition.

Lack of breast milk

Breast milk is an irreplaceable source of nutrition in the early years of life for little angels. If the baby is weaned early without replenishing the necessary amount of nutrients, the baby will easily face the risk of malnutrition.

Signs of malnutrition in children under 5 years old

When your baby has the following symptoms, mothers should take their children to the doctor immediately, because the baby is most likely facing malnutrition.

The child is slowly gaining weight or the weight has not changed for many months.

Frequently ill or suffer from respiratory diseases when the weather changes.

Poor sleep, often startled, fussy and crying.

Does not meet the average height standard, much lower than children of the same age.

Have digestive problems: Frequent bowel movements, frequent walks.

Slow to move like a crawl or walk even though you are too old.

Usually pale skin and pale lip color.

Solution for malnourished children

When your baby is malnourished, parents should not worry too much. Because during this period, children need to be provided with enough nutrients.

Balanced nutrition for children

It is important that parents should keep in mind that they should avoid feeding their baby snacks too early; maintain breastfeeding for as long as possible; For children to eat solid foods from 6 months, in which need to balance all 4 food groups such as starch, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals.

Build an active lifestyle for your children

In addition, parents should build an active lifestyle for their children . You should encourage your child to be active regularly, especially outdoors. This will help your baby strengthen resistance and physical strength.

At the same time, parents should also note the following when little angels are malnourished:

Completely treat respiratory infections, diarrhea ... for children, and avoid overuse of antibiotics (only use antibiotics as directed by the doctor).

Actively supplement nutrition during the child's illness so that the body can quickly recover.

Make a full and serious immunization schedule for your child

Always worming every 6 months for babies over 2 years old.

With the information shared above, The Asian Parent hopes the parents will have more knowledge to take good care of their children. From there, you can proactively care for or prevent malnutrition in children under 5 years old. This will help the little angels get rid of underweight status to grow healthy as their peers.

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