Sanitation And Child 's Health

Malnutrition is commonly found to be associated with poverty, often it is due to the lack of income into the household which restricts the family to the food products that they can buy. The food that the family are able to afford are often low in essential nutrients and vitamins, these food products are cheap to buy and easy to cook. Malnutrition is defined as the lack of consumption of nutrients which then leads to further health problems. Being malnourished can impact a child’s development, including weight loss, growth issues and cognitive issues. Having the correct nutrition intake is required within childhood to ensure that the child develops in the correct way, it is extremely

Children who are poor are most often born into poverty. Poverty is the lack of necessary needs in order to survive. Whether this be shelter, food, or water, most comes from a lack of cash flow through the family. Other situations can be divorces, children joining or being taken by rebel forces, parents passing away, or even situations of abuse. Statistics say that, “Around 55% of people live below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar each day. Areas with the greatest number of poor are particularly in the east of the country, where conflict continues”. With the majority of poor people living in the east, this also means that healthcare is worse there. When living conditions are not sanitary and there malnutrition, this causes people to become more susceptible to menial diseases. With all these factors taken into account, “The capital, Kinshasa, contains around 20-25,000 children who sleep rough and survive by begging”. Without means to help support these starving children, the country will continue to stay in this unproductive state; there needs to be a prevention of these preventable diseases killing the

Sixty percent of the world hunger is women. In developing countries, one out of six infants are born with a low birth weight. sixty-six million primary school aged children go to school hungry, most of which are in Africa with an insane twenty- three million children. World hunger is a continuing problem and to put it in perspective, count to ten and a child dies across the world because of

“Hunger is more than missing a meal. It's a debilitating crisis that has almost one billion people in its grip.” (MercyCorps). World hunger is a serious problem in our world today. Men, women, and children suffer from lack of food all over the world. Food is one of the most important things we need to survive. According to Feed My Starving Children, “Food builds a solid foundation for communities to become strong and self-reliant.” Most importantly, the women, need to be fed also because if they are fed, they will give birth to a healthy baby. Most women are hungry and when they suffer from hunger they have a higher chance of having complications during birth

Despite investments made to address maternal health issues, Ethiopia is still far from achieving the desired goals. Mothers, infants and children die from completely preventable health complications. The objective of this study is to identify the major barriers that limit utilization of maternal health services in Ethiopia. This study used data from the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. 36% of women had ANC visits, 13% used skilled delivery attendants and 105 of women sought postnatal health checkup. Educational

According to the results it shows there is a malnutrition problem across both setting due to the fact there is a high percentage of at risk elders in both populations (Donini, L., et al., 2013). When taking care of the elderly population is it important to be able to recognize when there is malnourishment occurring. Malnutrition is associated with decreased immune function and muscle, impaired wound healing, impaired quality of life, and maybe an increased hospital stay (Donini, L., et al., 2013). When looking at the malnourishment it is important to be able to identify what the causes of it are, if the nurse or caretaker is unable to identify the problem then it will never get fixed. Some signs of malnourishment among the elderly are increased nutrient loss such as bronchitis or kidney failure and involuntary weight loss (Donini, L., et al., 2013). It is important to not only look at the physical factors, but also the psychological factors as well. It is imperative to look at all aspect of the patient because they all play hand in hand and if the nurse or caretaker only looks at one side they may never be able to truly understand why the patient is malnourished. Some psychological factors are deprived affection, loss of active social role, and depression (Donini, L., et al., 2013). It is important within the community to be able to analyze whether or not the population is more at risk for certain factors over others. The caretakers and nurses need to know the environment and see how it plays a factor in the populations’

Certain attributes such as ethnic or religious eating habits or economic necessity by the parents are some of the main reasons we see that children in third world countries suffer from malnutrition (Piercecchi-Marti, M. 2006). Many children in third world countries are born into lower class families who's parents are not able to provide enough food for their children. Due to this, researchers find that malnutrition is more prone to areas of

There are several risk factors that impact children’s health in Ethiopia. For example, vitamin A deficiency stunts children’s growth. Mothers are unable to properly breastfeed so the child doesn’t fully develop as they should. Immune systems weaken in children as well, causing them to die from diseases that are easily treatable. Since the HIV/aids rate is so high in women, children also are transmitted the disease and end up dying. Another factor is that children don’t receive proper care from their families or health services. It is also estimated that over 150,000 children live on the streets in Ethiopian cities (Humanium • We make children's rights happen, 2017). That results in improper hygiene and lack of sanitation. As mentioned already,

Child hunger is an ongoing problem all around the world, but it is statistically more severe in the developing world, with 1 out of 6 children suffering from malnutrition and malnourishment. Africa has the countries with the most staggering child hunger rates; with 2,500 children dying daily from starvation (Borgenproject). Starvation and malnutrition have significant negative impacts on a child’s cognitive and neurological function, organ function and formation, and their physical growth. More importantly, starvation leaves children vulnerable to other serious diseases, stunt growth, and eventually, death. As someone living in the United States, it is difficult to make child hunger in Africa a priority, because one is literally and figuratively so far away from the issue, as well as misinformed and lacking the resources necessary to tackle the different causes that lead to child hunger in Africa.

Of particular concern is women and maternal health in Ethiopia. According to the millennium goal developments, the fifth goal is to reduce maternal mortality rate by 75% by 2015. One reason that maternal health needs to be increased in Ethiopia is because of the large amount of women who die each year. According to Skolnik (2012), the highest maternal mortality ratios are in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are 940 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This means that a woman in some countries of sub-Saharan countries of Africa such as Ethiopia face 250 times the risk of dying a maternal death as does a woman in the high-income countries. (Skolnik, 2012) There are many factors that come into play when looking at maternal health. Among the first are the nutritional status and general health status of the mothers, in addition there is a link between maternal death and the level of education and income of the mother (Skolnik, 2012, p. 191). In order to help reduce the high incidence of maternal mortality rate focus should be turned to wards identifying ways to improve the access to care for women who are pregnant. I believe this issue is the important to tackle because it can improve the prenatal care that women in Ethiopia receive resulting

In troubled areas, one can often see an increase within malnourished children. This means that the children’s immune system is highly exposed, which puts them in a vulnerable position towards diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea. The first 1000 days of a child’s life is greatly crucial for its health and development. If they do not develop accordingly to the normal standards, their development is getting paused, which is normally the case for malnourished children. On a global scale, 159 million children under the age of 5 suffers from malnutrition, where approximately 3 million of these die on a yearly basis (unicef.org.).

Currently, this question is one that needs to be answered during field placement in the country. In Ethiopia, after implementation of The Health Extension Program, the country achieved MDG 4 (reducing child mortality) by reducing the child mortality rate to less than 68 child deaths per 1000 live births (UNICEF, 2016); however neonatal deaths were still increasing. Implementation of the CBNC program was key to improving neonatal health. The community health workers were trained on detecting and treating key childhood illnesses, making timely referrals for newborns and older children with severe illnesses to high level care, and detecting newborns and infants with illness that may need interventions such as antibiotics to prevent neonatal death from sepsis (UNICEF,

What is malnutrition? Malnutrition can result from an unbalanced, insufficient, or excessive diet, or from impaired absorption, assimilation or use of foods (Anderson et al, 1994). Malnutrition is an overpriced burden for the health facility in terms of lengthy hours of hospitalization. Inadequate food intake during hospitalization deteriorates the prevalence and increased length of hospital stay, morbidity and mortality (Depertuis et al, 2003). Regardless of nutrition having a huge impact in a patient’s well-being, studies have shown that fifty percent of hospital patient’s nutritional status is reduced by hospitalization (Hallstrom et al, 2000). Malnutrition affects more than ten percent of older people (British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN), 2006). Between 30-40 percent of people admitted to hospitals, care homes or mental health units are at risk of malnutrition (BAPEN, 2009). Screening, by recognizing patients and clients with problems or at risk of developing them, is the essential first step of enhancing nutritional care.

In 2015, 303 000 women died due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications and 5.9 million children died under the age of 5 (WHO, 2016). Furthermore, over 45% of the child deaths occur during the first 28 days of life. The majority of the maternal and child deaths occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Moreover, a child from a poor background in these countries is 56 times more likely not to survive the first 5 years of life (Lassi et al., 2014). The problem of poor maternal, neonatal and child health persists in the majority of LMICs and it largely contributes to higher rates of premature mortality. Preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, and birth-related trauma, as well as diarrheal diseases, remain to be leading causes of mortality and morbidity in these countries (WHO, 2012). Nevertheless, the majority of maternal and child deaths can be averted using existing knowledge and effective interventions along with sufficient health recourses (Lassi et al., 2014). Despite substantial progress towards reducing the number of these deaths over the past few decades, it is still very slow. It can also be clearly seen that the social and geographical patterns in poor maternal and child health to some extent reflect inequalities between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’, with the majority of the progress in reducing the mortality numbers occurring in wealthy countries (Zere et al., 2012).

Among the many fights against poverty, improving children’s’ health is one of the major responsibilities. A healthy child becomes a healthy adult, a person who has the ability to create a better life for them, the people around them, their community, and their countries. One of the core UNICEF objectives is to improve the health of the children of the world.