Child Nutrition Problem In Mexico

Child nutrition problem in Mexico

Childhood is characterized by being the basic stage of learning, search, well -being and deployment of physical, mental and emotional potentials, so that society and the governments of the world more and more, recognize that this stage is not time to die or suffer diseases. In Mexico, for generations a large number of boys and girls have suffered diseases such as malnutrition, associated with frequent infections, which may be preventable cause enduring sequelae that limit their full growth and development and sometimes promote death at a very young age. Based on the experiences acquired in numerous countries, various international organizations propose to growth and development surveillance such as the axis that supports comprehensive health care, since evaluation and nutritional monitoring allows identifying risks, alterations and needs that imply a danger to the survival of the boy.

The manual addresses the magnitude of malnutrition, the different ways in which it usually occurs, the repercussions it has on the health of children and the most frequent factors that favor the appearance of this condition. The basic activities to be carried out in the surveillance of nutrition, growth and development are described using the simplest, positive and sensitive criteria and indicators to prevent, detect and address with opportunity nutrition problems;as well as the procedures and techniques that step by step must be followed. Likewise, other actions are included that contribute to improving food at home, through educational actions and the participation of mothers.

The objective of this work is to define the magnitude of the problem of malnutrition in its work universe. Establish and systematize the surveillance of nutrition, growth and development of children under 5 years. Evaluate the state of nutrition of children under their responsibility, in accordance with the established standards and techniques. Provide the attention and nutritional monitoring that each case requires. Guide and promote better food in the boy, girl and family. Correctly record the activities carried out. And lower the percentage of obesity in Mexico.

Mexican child feeding

Nutritional problems in Mexico

The poor food that deprives the Mexican population has caused 41.9% of those under 5 years of age, according to the weight/age indicator, suffer some type of malnutrition, as noted by the National Nutrition Survey, 1988.

The situation is aggravated in the marginalized rural towns of the country, where the prevalence of malnutrition reaches up to 80% of children in this age group, as studies carried out by the National Institute of Nutrition ‘Salvador Zubirán‘.

Likewise, the problem of malnutrition is reflected in the mortality rates for nutrition deficiencies, which in 1995 and 1996 occupied the 5th. place as a cause of death in children under 5 years. It should also be considered that malnutrition contributes significantly in the number of deaths that occurred by intestinal and respiratory infectious conditions.

On the other hand, the problems of poor diet in children also occur due to excess in the usual food consumption, as indicated by the same National Nutrition Survey 1988, finding that the 2.2% of children under 5 years presented obesity.

Human nutrition is the contribution and use of nutrients that in the boy and girl manifests itself by growth and development. Growth is a process by which the body mass of a living being increases, due to the increase in the number of cells (hyperplasia), the increase in the volume of cells (hypertrophy) and the increase in the ‘intercellular substance.

Development is the successive differentiation of organs and systems. It refers to the development of functions, adaptations, psychomotor skills and abilities, emotional relationships and socialization. These definitions need to consider that the maintenance of organic functions, basic activity and growth and development, to a large extent, depend on the usual food consumption that the child has. The state of equilibrium between consumption and "expense" results.

Girls health repercussions, in both cases they are serious since obesity is a factor that can predispose them to suffer chronic degenerative diseases in adulthood, while malnutrition can be considered more serious, by the highPercentage of children who suffer from it and the irreversible negative effects they have on growth and development, as well as the certainty that its present and future quality of life decreases with it. Depending on the intensity of malnutrition, the duration and age at which the boy and girl suffer from it can present for their life:

Greater risk of infectious disease. And greater danger of dying in the first years of life.

Classification of malnutrition due to its duration and intensity Malnutrition for its duration is classified as:

• Acute: It is presented due to the restriction of food that is manifested by weight loss and perhaps growth arrest. When the boy or girl is properly and timely attended, he recovers, replenishes his losses and grows normally.
• Chronicle: It occurs when food deprivation is prolonged, weight loss is accentuated;As a consequence the agency to survive decreases its requirements and stops growing, that is, it maintains a low height for its age.

Recovery is more difficult. Malnutrition for its intensity is classified as:

• Mild: It is presented when the quantity and variety of nutrients that the child receives are lower than their requirements. At the beginning it is characterized by loss or non -gain of weight.
• Moderate: It occurs when the lack of nutrients is prolonged and accentuated, malnutrition is sharpened and easily associated with infectious processes, it manifests itself with greater weight deficit, growth arrest, anorexia and greater ease of contracting infections
• Severa: It occurs when there is a prolonged lack of food associated with frequent infectious conditions, anorexia intensifies and the physiological decompensation of the organism reaches such a degree, which puts the child in serious danger of death.

It manifests in two ways:

Marasmo (dry malnutrition)

1. Excessive thinness
2. Old -fashioned face
3. Exaggerated crying
4. Ralo hair

Kwashiorkor (malnutrition with edema by modifying the weight of the child)

1. Swelling especially on feet, legs, hands and face
2. Sad
3. Ralo hair
4. Skin lesions

Surveillance instruments for the boy and girl

The weight-work indicators, related to age and anthropometric reference parameters, constitute an appropriate, simple, reliable and low-cost method for the surveillance and monitoring of growth and the state of nutrition in children in children.

The surveillance of nutrition, growth development allows to know the physical, mental and emotional evolution of the child, as well as identify and correctly correct alterations that obstruct the full and integral formation of the individual in the first years of his life.

Systematize nutritional surveillance implies a challenge that must be achieved in order to ensure and all Mexican girls and boys a better present and future quality of life.

Factors that influence malnutrition

In nutritional surveillance it is necessary to take into account some of the individual and environmental factors that influence malnutrition such as:

• Low birth weight.
• Maternal breast breastfeeding.
• Adolescent mother or daughter.
• Bading and weaning badly directed.
• Low economic income.
• Bad eating habits.
• Deficient hygiene and sanitation.

Obesity

Obesity is a public health problem whose prevalence has increased acceleratedly in the world to become a pandemic. In countries that have experienced a recent process of epidemiological transition, malnutrition and micro nutrient deficiencies still prevail, while changes occur in lifestyle increase sedentary lifestyle and modify their diet, characterized by an excessive contribution of energy, which has given rise to the fact that the old problems of malnutrition in populations that still live in poverty have increased in the population and gradually increased the frequency of health problems derived from excess energy in the daily diet in theChildren, youth and the elderly of this country, so this report will make particular reference to these problems in children.

Obesity is today a pandemic, that is, a world epidemic. Since the beginning of the 20th century it affects industrialized countries and in the last three or four years, increasingly to the urban areas of almost all countries. It is linked to the urbanization process, but its causes are not so clear and it would be inadmissible to analyze them here in detail. It influences the genetic inheritance that determines the body’s ability to regulate its food ingestion and thus avoid excess, but certain environmental factors seem relevant. Urbanization implies the abundant availability of food, less physical activity and undesirable changes in food customs that today favor obesity, since it tends to consume diets less capable of satisfying and densest in energy for its greater content of fat andsugar than fibers. The emigration of the countryside to the rural city is accompanied by a difficult cultural shock to handle, since the immigrant, unconsciously, grants greater value and social prestige to urban customs than their own own. Commercial advertising contributes to this change. The novelty in itself is attractive, but if a relationship with social status is also attributed to it, it seems inevitable that the population tends to modify its food customs. However, the new is not necessarily better;Moreover, in the field of food the new does not have a special value and are not rare the times that is even lower than the ‘old’, such as numerous Mexican food traditions resulting from millennia of evolution and culinary refinement and thatThey are much more favorable for health. For the urban population, food begins to be a secondary priority to which time and attention is spared and more and more of its hedonic, social and ritual components are stripped to reduce it to a simple act of biological survival that is done at any timeand place together with other activities. Cooking daily has become a task without merit or brightness. This food barbarization process has its price in terms of quality of life and health.

Esre is the main risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemias, osteoarticular diseases and certain types of cancer. In Mexico, according to the National Health and Nutrition Survey (Ensenut) 2006, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in preschool was 16.7%;In schoolchildren, 26.2%, and in adolescents, 30.9%. In adults the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 39.7 and 29.9%, respectively. From the diagnosis of

Situation in Mexico, the need to have a comprehensive, multisectoral, multilevel and effective coordination to achieve changes in food and physical activity patterns that allow the prevention of chronic diseases and the reduction of prevalence and the reduction of prevalence has been clearly identifiedoverweight. The combination of strategies and actions of the National Agreement for Food Health proposed by the Federal Government contemplates that in 2012: the growth of the prevalence of overweight and obesity is reversed in children of two to five years.;stop in the population of 5 to 19 years of progress in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, and decelerate the growth of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the adult population. This challenge will require important regulatory actions, adaptive implementation and great participation of all sectors of society.