In Latin America and the Caribbean (ALC) there are 3.6 million children between 3 and 4 years of age who have development delays, at risk of not reaching their maximum potential due to nutritional insufficiencies.
The third part lives in the poorest households, in rural areas and are children of women with less education, according to data ‘Nutrition in early childhood: current state and challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean’, of the Organization of Ibero -American States (OEI) and the Ibero -American Nutrition Foundation (FINUT).
According to the study, minors with chronic malnutrition have twice less possibilities of achieving adequate development of literacy and numerical skills, the OEI reported on Wednesday in a statement.
“Millions of children go to school hungry and hungry are not learned,” the OEI Secretary General, Mariano Jabonero, affects.
More than 152,000 children died in ALC alone in 2022 due to aspects related to nutrition deficiencies, of which more than half were less than 28 days of life.
On the neonates, the report warns that one in 10 had a lower weight than recommended at birth (2,500 grams), which reach 11.7% in the Caribbean and 10.9% in Central America.
“This situation is presented as a public health problem in some countries, affecting almost one in two newborn children,” adds the note.
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Anemia and growth problems In children
A total of 5.7 million minors have a low size, a growth delay that can be up to five times higher in the case indigenous children of less than five years.
Iron deficiency anemia is the biggest public health problem related to micronutrient deficiencies and affects 16.5% of children between six months and five years old, which represents about twelve million. In Haiti, the problem reaches 40% of those under those ages.
As for obesity, the study indicates that it is on the rise in ALC and suffers from 4.2 million children, that is, 8% of the population on average, with differences between regions and countries.
Among the recommendations of public policies, programs or interventions, are to encourage the promotion and protection of breastfeeding, human milk banks and adequate complementary food or prioritize situation studies by categories: from gestation to children under two years and two to five, who require specific nutritional interventions.
The document analyzes about a hundred scientific publications, in addition to reports from international and governmental entities from 2014 to 2024, with the aim of knowing the situation and the main challenges of the region in child nutrition and proposing recommendations to overcome them at the end of this decade.
With EFE information.
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