December 15, 2010
Malnutrition: A Symptom of Discouragement, Skepticism, and Despair
In the Malnourished Children of the Rural Poor, primary investigator and economist Edward Dension made the case that the expansion of schooling leads to economic growth and to the elimination of poverty-which is not the same thing. He stated that, “What seemed patently false was the idea that education expansion, pursued as a single major isolated policy initiative, did much to help poor people.” Children of the poor do not attend school very long. Even when a poverty child manages to make it through the grades, he (she) tends to do low on examinations. Educational expansion usually is associated with a rise in credentials of the monetized sector the job market, so less-educated groups in the population gets themselves less in economic opportunity. What are the possibilities for improvement? The improvement in health of low-income children must increase, so that they may enter school more readily, and do better academically. As Dension then adds to his upcoming analysis, “The main difficulty to overcome into establishing a more complete, integrated, effective program to help poor children reach their human potential is the fragmented, competitive structure of social agencies in Third World countries.” Therefore, a thorough examination (which has been done sparingly) will be on the effects on very young children of several social interventions which have been pursued simultaneously. Among them are nutrition, health, and education. These conducted examinations will be based upon with the benefits of detailed knowledge of the context of family and village. The lack of education and malnutrition are the consequence of failed government reforms and therefore one of the reasons why countries like Guatemala remain to be under-developing countries. The studies from all the following texts have been acknowledged by INCAP (Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama), which is the established nutritional center of the Pan American Health Organization with headquarters in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Malnutrition has been a very complex problem because in not only exists in absolute numbers, but in also great magnitude. The majority of these situations go undocumented and therefore little exists of its origin and knowledge of ability to accumulate very rapidly resulting in weakened, nutritionally deprived children. Beginning with the book entitled, The Children of Santa Maria Cauque, their foundation of study is similar to the other texts that will be inferred upon in this analysis. The author, Leonardo Mata, recognizes that part of the failure of less developed countries cannot reach better standards of living and health is because of their lack to solve the longitude and magnitude of existing problems. This could be account of inadequate or just nonexistent knowledge of such measures. Mata and his team of physicians focused on the village of Santa Maria Cauque as an example in such as previous approach. One of the main factors in choosing this village was that the health and growth of infants and young children were in rural and economic disadvantage. This work focuses attention centered on malnutrition and also infectious disease because in combination they constitute the main problems of not Guatemala alone- but in Central America as well.
One thing to ask before which puzzles us today is how this country continues to remain so poor, when primarily the United States gives Guatemala $9.6 million in loans and $7.7 million in grants, for a total of $17.3 million in economic assistance. Also, through the Alliance for Progress, the United States has given $14 million to support Guatemalan’s agrarian reform. What is the Alliance for Progress? It is a hemisphere-wide development program intended to merge new strategic and security threats with economic policy between the U.S. and Latin America. Carried out during the Kennedy administration, it was to help Latin American nations escape their cyclical pattern of poverty and dictatorships. Was it successful? Some critics say “yes”, when inferring to new generation of leaders now dedicating to more democratic principles. However, what it failed to do was pass the dictatorship and move toward the people of the nations. The $20 billion in loans received by Latin American, remained within their governments. We may look at some of its top consequences.
What we are certain of is that poverty is remarkably stable and persistent and has been passed down from generation to generation along family lines. The child in an improvised family and community is deprived. Because of poverty, the child typically is malnourished and in poor health. Growth is stunted due to poor prenatal and early diet. The health conditions of the family are miserable because of overcrowded housing without portable water and sanitation. This does not exclude adult individuals. Adult family members are likely to be poorly nourished, suffer from disease; typically are illiterate, they work at low levels of productivity and for very low pay. Under these conditions, their children have very low opportunities.
It is surprising that the human body is adaptable enough to survive in these changes and cope with severe physical and psychological strain. These modes of coping have developed over generations. In the study of the article, “Does Immigration Help or Harm Children’s Health? The Mayan Case*”, it is explained that since the human body is good rapidly adapt to environmental changes, even under an indicator of low environmental quality. This is because the human phenotype is highly flexible.
This is called biological adaptions; consequences of this include the child’s body at birth grows more slowly-maturing later than the non-deprived, attaining shorter stature. In a better environment, children tend to produce heavier, taller, long-legs, which all indicate better health (Bogin, 1999; Brown and Pollit, 1996). In a poorer environment, the human body adapts by conserving energy and centralizing growth and internal development in specific areas. Children under these circumstances, are shorter, have relatively shorter legs, and are lighter. This type of development also increases to becoming social patterns, which persist across generations. Malnutrition is not just a simple deprivation of food, but a more complicated interaction of nutrient needs and health, based on the presence of infections.
One of the researches begins in four villages in Guatemala (labeling them Village 1, 2, 3, and 4). In a short description of the villages, all the villages were located in the Department of El Progreso in the dry, mountainous northeastern area of Guatemala City. They all suffer from lack of direct transportation and active commerce between Guatemala City is light. The houses were made of local material; usually they are dirt floors and tile roofs. The community is mainly small agriculture. Climate conditions are similar in all villages, being approximately 800 meters above sea level. Out of the four villages, only one Village 3 had electrical power. Also, only Village 2 and 4 has water pipes.
The family living unit consists of on average 5 ½ people with a mortality rate of nineteen percent (members of the Berkeley Project 28). Family diet is mainly corn and beans; eggs, and chicken, if home-grown livestock is available.
As for economic stances, ninety-percent of male head families have agricultural occupations, producing mainly corn and beans, tomatoes and chili. This however, only counts for seventeen percent of total income. Sixty-percent of income comes from small trade and selling of arts and crafts. Wage income alone accounts for forty-percent of total income. The average family income is about $550 per year; approximate annual income capita counted only where data were available, is $130. This is extremely low; when poverty is defined by local standards. Thirty-five percent of families from the villages fall under this level.
I have found a pattern between income and education. In education, less half of the villages over seven of age are literate, men more likely than women. Those employed in non-agriculture markets are more likely to literate than agricultural workers. The ability to read and write is important in more outside the village jobs.
Another research was conducted in a village named Santa Maria Cauque. The village is located 22 miles from Guatemala City, 6, 200 above sea level, and the setting of the village is flat. A typical house has one or two rooms .The walls are constructed of cornstalk, adobe, and/or brick. Roofs were built of thatch, tiles, and/or iron. Household and environmental sanitation is very low. Sewers do not exist and nor latrines-the relatively few are in poor conditions. Pests such as flies, mice, and rats are always common.
In this village, agriculture is also a big participant of total economy. There are small land parcels, minifundos, which grows maize, string beans, and peas. The average annual capita income in the village was not determined but the mean gross domestic product has been declined twenty-six percent (Mata 20).
In observation methods of developing countries, and mainly in rural areas, that longevity of fetal life and newborn infants are at its lowest levels. Fortunately, the Cauque study collected mass of information of health status and care on newborn infants by controlled techniques that allowed assessment of fetal growth and other characteristics over a life span of eight years. Such as these were birth weight, pediatric evaluations, and interviews with mother and midwives. The likelihood of death relates to low birth rate and gestational age. Mata states, “In fact, the correlation between low birth rate and infant mortality was so striking in this study that birth weight ended up being the best practical index of fetal growth and development.” An amount of 2,000 grams was in the level of survival during the first three months. Higher birth rate was much correlated with lower mortality. No deaths occurred within the first year among infants that weighed more than 3,000 grams at birth. This is more clearly shown in a table, Infant Deaths by Birth Weight, 430 Singleton, 1964-1973 (table 8.3 pg. 155) which shows the correlation at smaller intervals. Out of five infants with birth weights less than 1,501 grams, three of them died from birth to twenty-weight days, birth weights between 1,501-2,750 grams had no deaths within their first year. Birth weights higher than 2,501 grams did not exist until they reached the age of 6 months-first year. However, mortality in early childhood increases once again. In the fourth year of life, small-for-gestational age children had an age-specific mortality of 50 per 1,500, contrast to infants only 8 per 1,000.
What else has caused these deaths? Eight of eighteen deaths occurred within 48 hours of birth, all among preterm babies. Up to the first day, the presumed cause of death was not established. Pneumonia was the main cause of deaths occurring in two days or later. Two other cases were only estimated to be because of HCNS (intracranial hemorrhage, central nervous system damage).
Diet and Physical Growth: Is determining weight a reliable factor? According the Maya In the study of Does Immigration Help or Harm Children’s Health? The Mayan Case*, height, weight, and body composition are widely used indicators of nutritional and health status. However, the physical growth and development of children are indicators of the quality of the social, economic, and political environment in which they live (Bogin, Loucky, Orden, Smith, Varela-Silva 1995). This brings me back to the central idea in the web of malnutrition. These countries remain underdeveloped because individuals, especially children are destined for low-production at a very early age. Just how these factors are sensitive to children’s health, their health will determine the level of efficiency and productivity of those factors.
To explain what exactly children are eating, a significant part of the home diet of children during their first two years of life is derived from nursing. Afterward studies on children’s home diets were performed by asking mothers to recall their children’s consumption on the previous day. This was done to the Village 1, 2, 3, and 4. The sequence of observations has been averaged to generate six annual estimates of daily home diets at ages 18, 30, 42, 54, 66, and 78 months (Wilson 45). Therefore, the diet reported at 18 months is the average with the reports for 15 and 21 months. For the three months report on diet consumption, it allowed to predict the average for 365 days. However, the sampling error was the greatest component of error. This was due to lack of parent recall but the means of the diets in children remained consistent from year to year. The protein value of the home diets in the four villages were eleven percent.
As for the specific study of Santa Maria Cauque, food intake and growth were examined in two ways. 1) Compare the amounts of growth with the amount of food curves. 2) Analyze growth with early age and child characteristics. It was shown that out of 14 two year old children, only one consumed the recommended amounts of retinol and thiamin. More than half received less than 50 percent of the calories, total retinol, and riboflavin recommended for that age; all children consumed less than 50 percent of the recommended niacin. Iron was inadequate for eleven of these children but was not efficiently absorbed because of its source. The quality of protein they consume is derived forty percent from maize. Although the village children are continuously exposed to these environments and show deficient growth, they still manage to survive under poor diet regimens.
Determinants of Children’s School Participation and Performance: The foundation of this study was designed to test for the effects upon children’s school participation of their prior nutrition and health conditions as well as their parent’s occupation, education, and affluence. Even though it is required by law for children in Guatemala to attend school, only about half the children in rural areas do, even including at the lowest grade levels. What children are doing instead is spending the majority of their time at home and/or family agricultural plans. Does the likelihood of school enrollment and academic achievements depend on children’s early and continuing health? The data inferred from this text shows that nutrition and health do affect children’s verbal scores and school achievement. It was shown that in more economic factors contributed to school enrollment. The children’s school participation has been affected by their parent’s need of help. This minimizes the parent’s concept of essential education. When separated economic factors, children’s decision to enroll is apparent with parent’s affluence, the size of the child, and role of child in the family. Children born earlier in the family are more likely to attend school than older siblings.
Novelist, Manlio Argueta, wrote many description of malnutrition in the novel, One Day of Life. Such portrayal can be found in how he describes the lifestyles in his fictional characters: “Such as the thickness of the tortillas or his belief that eating only beans and corn makes us weak in the head, even though they are nourishing; yes they are, but the body tires of getting tortillas and beans for breakfast every day, tortillas and beans for lunch, tortillas and beans for supper, from your first cry when you leave your mother’s womb until your last breath” (Argueta 117).
The comprehensive studies have shown that in the Central American population, the main nutritional problems are protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM), deficiencies of vitamin A and riboflavin, and anemia (INCAP 1969). The main consequence revealed in Santa Maria Cauque the basis of retarded physical growth. The main factors contributing to physical growth retardation are inadequate feeding of infants and children and excessive rates of infection. Other environmental factors are such as family stability, and parental education. Modification of the Alliance for Progress or other attempted government reforms will be related to nutritional, biological and economic modifications.
Works Cited
Balderston, Judith B., Freire, Maria E., Simonen, Mari S., Wilson, Alan B. “Malnourished Children of the Rural Poor: The Web of Food, Health, Education, Fertility, and Agricultural Production.” Boston: Auburn House Publishing Company, 1981. Print.
Bogin, Barry, Loucky, James, Orden, Bibiana, Smith, Patrick K., Varela-Silva, Ines M. “Does Immigration Help or Harm Children’s Health? The Mayan Case*.” Social Science Quarterly. (2002). Print.
Mata, Leonardo. “The Children of Santa Maria Cauque: A Prospective Field Study of Health and Growth.” Boston: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978. Print.
May, Jacques M., M.D., McLennan, Donna L. “The Ecology of Malnutrition in Mexico and Central America.” New York: Hafner Publishing Company, Inc., 1972. Print.
Scheman, L. Ronald. “The Alliance for Progress”. L. Ronald Scheman. 1988. Print.
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