Malnutrition increases risk of death among infants, says expert

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 8

An eight-day workshop on “Integrated management of neonatal and childhood illness” is underway at Mother and Child Hospital. Training is being provided to auxiliary nurses and midwives (ANMs) of different community health centers of Ludhiana.

Dr Rajinder Gulati, head, pediatric department, Civil Hospital, while addressing the participants discussed about diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and neo-natal infections that kids under five years of age are prone to.

“Malnutrition increases the risk of death and the main reason for malnutrition is poor feeding habits. During the workshop we are teaching the assessment, classification and management of major problems of a sick infant or child less than 5 years of age,” said Dr Gulati.

In the first part, management of young infants up to 2 years of age will be taught and in the second part management of young infants of above two years to five years of age will be told.

Colour coding chart will be given to the ANMs to assess the gravity of the problem. Red colour means the problem needs utter attention and should be referred to the doctor, Yellow colour means they should treat themselves and green colour means management at the level of home care.