How can growth be stunted

WHO defines stunting as the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are stunted if their height-for-age is less than -2 standard deviations of the WHO Child Growth reference. The total number of stunted children in the world has decreased, but still, million children below the age of five years are stunted.

This number is just a fraction of the number of children who are slowing down their linear growth due to different causes. A few years ago, PLOS Medicine published a paper by Goodarz Danaei and colleagues on risk factors for childhood stunting in low- and middle-income countries.

A slowing down of growth as early as the fetal stage and harsh environmental conditions were the leading risk factors for stunting in that extensive analysis. Factors leading to stunting are established early in life. The findings in these two reports are not unique. We do not know the optimum ingredients for such a diet. Sulphur has been neglected as an essential nutrient; its economy should be examined in relation to skeletal growth in stunted populations.

PIP: Malnourished children are stunted with their bone maturity usually retarded to a comparable degree. Some degree of spontaneous catch-up is, however, usually observed when these children are followed to adulthood.

Catch-up growth tends to result with a change in environment through adoption or emigration, or with treatment of the disease, albeit often not to NCHS standards. The delay may be caused by an underlying health condition, such as growth hormone deficiency or hypothyroidism. In some cases, early treatment can help a child reach a normal or near-normal height. It may be a sign of other health issues.

If your child is smaller than other children their age, they may have a growth problem. A growth delay may also be diagnosed in a child whose height is in the normal range, but whose rate of growth has slowed. The child may be shorter than average simply because of genetics. Children with this condition are shorter than average but grow at a normal rate. They also tend to reach puberty later than their peers.

This leads to a below average height in early teenage years, but they tend to catch up with their peers in adulthood. Under normal circumstances, GH promotes the growth of body tissues. Babies or children with hypothyroidism have an underactive thyroid gland. The thyroid is responsible for releasing hormones that promote normal growth, so delayed growth is a possible sign of an underactive thyroid.

Turner syndrome TS is a genetic condition that affects females who are missing a part or all of one X chromosome. TS affects approximately 1 in 2, females. Nadine Gaab, Ph. Stunting is a global problem. Although important progress has been made to reduce child stunting, stunting is declining too slowly and levels still remain unacceptably high.

In , UN agencies reported that million children under five — almost 22 percent of all children in the age range — were affected by the condition in , depriving many them of the opportunity to achieve their full potential before they even reach school age.

Multiple forms of malnutrition are evident in many countries. Poor access to food and particularly healthy food contributes to undernutrition and increases the risk of low birthweight and childhood stunting. A multisectoral approach is therefore needed to reduce the burden of both stunting and wasting.