As we celebrate the 46^th Nutrition Month with the theme “Batang Pinoy, SANA TALL… Iwas Stunting, SAMA ALL! Iwas ALL din sa COVID-19!”, we also want to shift our focus on the stunted children and initiate project, programs, and activities that would eradicate the number of stunted children in the Philippines. The State of the World’s Children: Children, Food and Nutrition revealed that one in three Filipino children under five years old are stunted, which means they are too short for their age. Thus, the National Nutrition Council is exhausting all efforts to address malnutrition especially among children through the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022, which serves as the country’s framework for nutrition improvement.

To know the basics, stunting is the percentage of children aged 0 to 59 months (under 5 years old) whose height for age is below -2 standard deviation (moderate and severe stunting) and -3 standard deviation (severe stunting) from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards.

According to WHO, stunting is one of the most significant impediments to human development, globally affecting approximately 162 million children under the age of 5 years. In fact, stunting is already considered a national and a global issue.

What are the consequences of stunting as an individual?

• Reduces learning capacity- stunting can lead to reduced intellectual capacity and poor school performance
• Less income- stunted children who become adults learn 20% less than their non-stunted counterparts
• More prone to non-communicable diseases- stunted children are at greater risk of becoming overweight or obese, which consequently increases risk to non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes.
• Impact on behavioral development- stunted children are more apathetic, display less exploratory behavior, have altered physiological arousal. They also tend to have more anxiety, depression, and lower self-esteem compared to non-stunted children.

What do we do now?

The PPAN recommends focusing on the First 1000 Days with interventions to improve maternal health and nutrition, behavior change communication, improving food security through dietary supplementation of pregnant women in the third trimester and among 6-23 months old children and older children, and regular growth monitoring of weight and height.

We should correct the misconception that Filipinos are meant to be short because it is our lahi. We can reduce stunting if we SAMA ALL. A whole government approach is also needed because the problem extends beyond the health and nutrition sector but also in agriculture, gender and development, education, local governance, and etc.

There is no forever in stunting. Together with the efforts of the national and local government units, we can soon see that Batang Pinoys, are TALL because we tried to put an end to STUNTING, by SAMA ALL.

AA VI Cielo Katrina M. Mabalot