Slide 21
Diarrhoea and foodThe last four slides are about the relationship
between food, nutrition and diarrhoea. (Reference
6)
Here is Maina, (pronounced MINER) who is one and a
half years old, and next to him is part of his height
chart, or growth chart. Maina is sitting on the grass
near his house. He does not try to run away from the
photograph, and he is not interested in playing. He just
sits.
Q. What do you think about Maina's state of
nutrition? First, what do his appearance and
behaviour tell you?
A. Maina's appearance and behaviour suggest that he
is malnourished. You cannot see his arms, so it is
difficult to see if he is wasted (that is, very thin).
But he has thin, pale hair, and he does not play or
show much interest in things. He has round
suggesting early kwashiorkor.
Q. Now, what does Maina's growth chart tell you?
A. Maina's growth chart shows that his growth curve
is below the lower line, and it is rising too slowly.
Also Maina's growth curve goes down when he
has diarrhoea. And he has had diarrhoea three
times. The most important weight dots to notice
are the first dots AFTER the diarrhoea. Perhaps
you can see that these dots are not much higher
than the dots before the diarrhoea
Teacher's Note
We assume that the audience is familiar with the principles of the growth chart. If they are
not, we suggest that you explain it briefly, and
try to obtain a sample growth chart to show the students. You may also like to show the
TALC slide set on Charring Growth in Small Children which explains the chart in
great detail. |
Q. So what effects has the diarrhoea had on Maina's growth?
A. The diarrhoea has prevented Maina from growing
well. Diarrhoea is helping to cause his malnutrition. Look at the words on the blue above
the growth chart. An arrow goes from the ward
'diarrhoea' down to the word 'malnutrition'. This
reminds you that diarrhoea helps to cause malnutrition.
Q. But what does the other arrow show, going up, from
malnutrition to diarrhoea?
A. The other arrow is showing that malnutrition is also makes diarrhoea worse -
in other words, malnourished children have diarrhoea more often than
well-nourished children. The two arrows, and the two words show the 'vicious
circle" of malnutrition and diarrhoea. They each make the other worse.
Q. What else do you think might have caused Maina's diarrhoea, before he became malnourished?
A. Maina spends most of the day on the earth around his house. He has done this
since he learned to crawl at the age of 10 month. He puts food and other things
in his mouth. It is hard for his mother to keep dishes and spoons clean, because
the nearest water is down in the valley. So, many dirty things go into the month
of a curious young child. It is not surprising that he has had many attacks of
diarrhoea.
And each time he has diarrhoea, his mother stops feeding him for a day or two.
She noticed that when he ate something, ha passed more stools.
