Contents:
- Medical Video: Nutrition Tips : Effects of Poor Diet in Children
- Infants over 6 months
- Infants under 6 months
Medical Video: Nutrition Tips : Effects of Poor Diet in Children
Malnourished babies are affected by long-term malnutrition. Nutrition makes your baby look less skinny. This is not an acute situation, for example, once not eating and then immediately lacking nutrition.
If it is not handled appropriately, over time children with malnutrition can change their status to worse malnutrition. Infants who are malnourished also need to be treated immediately because this condition can affect the physical growth and brain of the child in the future. So, what should be done if the baby is malnourished?
Handling for malnourished infants (underweight) over 6 months who have been allowed to eat solid food with babies under 6 months of course will be different. If the baby is over 6 months old, the principle is similar to that of children in general.
Infants over 6 months
Children are advised to gradually increase their intake of energy, protein, carbohydrates, fluids, vitamins and minerals. The goal is to gain weight and strengthen the immune system so that the baby is not at higher risk of getting an infection.
In addition to dietary changes, there are other treatments needed to improve the nutritional status of a thin baby:
- Emotional support from family
- Certain treatments if available, which are related to the cause of why the child becomes thin
- Provision of special vitamins and minerals
After the baby is healthy enough, his weight has begun to increase, and meets his standards, is expected to maintain his diet according to the needs of the child. Ask for help from a pediatrician or child nutritionist to design a diet.
Infants under 6 months
For babies under 6 months, and included in the category of underweight (thin), basically there is no addition of other foods. Handling given must focus on breast milk. Giving breast milk is done more often than usual. Do not immediately give formula milk to overcome this problem.
Addition of formula milk to infants is only done on certain problems with the supervision of a doctor or nutritionist. If you do not have other health problems, babies should always be given exclusive breastfeeding.
While giving ASI more regularly, keep the environment around the baby clean to avoid infection. The thinner the child, the higher the risk of infection. Therefore the cleanliness of the environment and the cleanliness of the people around the baby really need to be maintained.
Don't forget to always bring children to Posyandu, Puskesmas, or the nearest health service regularly and routinely. This is needed to monitor changes in children's nutritional status.
