Cebu City – A frontrunner in the conduct of Operation Timbang (OPT) Plus, the Barangay Nutrition Scholars play an important role in ensuring that the annual activity is done on time and reaching all children below five years old in their communities.

While the OPT Plus has been around for more than a decade, with the “Plus” added to its name to include the measuring of height and length. This has led to the expansion of nutritional status indicators from only weight-for-age to the addition of length/height-for-age and weight-for-height/length.

While efforts have been made to continuously capacitate barangay-level health and nutrition workers, the fast turnover of these grassroots workers has affected the quality of data gathered during the said period. (Read about the Importance of Good Quality OPT Plus Data here)

Used for not only identifying malnourished children for nutrition interventions, the OPT Plus results is also used to gauge the effectiveness of nutrition program implementation, it is used as a basis for the identification of priority nutrition outputs at the local government level.

Hence the importance of BNSs being able to lead their barangay OPT Plus teams well.

As we prepare for a new year, the barangay nutrition committee also prepares for the conduct of the annual weighing and height/length as part of the OPT Plus for the first quarter of 2023. The NNC 7 finds it apt to share a few reminders for our dear BNSs in their preparations.

• Ensure that master lists of children 0-59 months of age are updated – using the printout from the OPT Plus Tool is very useful.
• Check your tools if they are functional – if possible have them validated or calibrated.
• Set a schedule per purok/ sitio and make sure that mothers and caregivers in the area know about it.
• Mobilize your BNC members to help with the weighing and height/length taking.
• Ensure that children who are close to “graduating” and newborns are also covered.
• As much as possible give feedback to mothers/caregivers on their children’s nutritional status on site – prioritize SAM and MAM.
• Do not wait for the end of the quarter to refer malnourished children – we have to address malnutrition right away, and
• Present the results to the BNC right away.

Want to know more tips in the preparation for the OPT? Read here for tips for local nutrition program coordinators and BNS supervisors. // NO III Nasudi G. Soluta