Recent Findings! More Sources!!

Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days

State of the World’s Mothers 2012

The United States 

Global Health Initiative  

Guatemala Strategy 

Guatemala Tourism Quetzaltenango Malnutrition

The Scope of the Malnutrition Epidemic in Guatemala: 

 Its Implications on the Development of the Child and of the Nation 

Be the Change: Global Malnutrition

Be the Change: Global Malnutrition: ABCNEWS.COM - Christiane Amanpour reports on a promising nutritional supplement.

Malnutrition Causes Severe Stunting in Guatemalan Children

Here is another great article on child malnutrition in Guatemala.  It talks about cause, effect, and solution and it has a great video that pulls your heart strings.  I highly recommend it.

Here were some of the key points:

• 50% of the population Guatemala is stunted and up to 80% of rural villages are stunted due to malnutrition
• Stunting occurs due to lack of vital nutrients in the first 1000 days of a child's life.
• Effects of malnutrition are stunting, susceptibility to disease, and lower IQ.  Many children are forced to drop out of school and never acquire satisfactory jobs.
• An average diet is lacking in protein found in milk and meats.
• Mothers are encourage to breast feed and give supplementary food like Incaparina, which is often ineffective because it is mixed with too much water.
• Adequate diet and nutrition is essential before the age of 2.
• Organizations like Save the Children's Guatemala distribute goats for milk, teach nutrition, and show how to raise chickens and gardens.
• 9-year-old Mayans are six inches shorter than 9-year-old Mayans raised in United States.

Specific Nutrients

Nutrition research has emphasized that shortages of vitamins and minerals -- particularly vitamin A, idoine, and iron --- contribute to significant health problems. 

• Vitamin A = important for good vision, bone growth, tooth development and resistance to infection. 
• Iodine= needed for proper operation of the central nervous system
• Iron = a constituent of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to tissues; helps fight infections

Hence, most investigators now believe malnutrition is best avoided by a diet that supplies enough protein, calories, vitamins, and minerals to ensure normal growth. 

This next article (you can find by clicking on the image below) has some info about linking agriculture to nutrition and about why children are malnourished (one big reason is lack of education). 

I think the study linked to the image below will have a lot of helpful information that we could use. I copied and pasted parts of the abstract and introduction below the image to give you and idea about the study.

This study assessed the acceptability of lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) among children 6–18 

months of age in Suchitepéquez, Guatemala. A new flavor (cinnamon) was developed and tested 

alongside the “regular” peanut LNS flavor

....

We conclude that these LNS products were acceptable in this population, with a tendency towards a 

higher acceptability for the peanut flavor. Our findings suggest that evaluation of the impact of LNS will not be impeded by poor acceptance of these supplements. 

The term “lipid-based nutrient supplements” (LNS) refers to a range of products in which vitamins and 

minerals are embedded in a fat-based food product (generally composed of vegetable fat, peanut paste, 

milk powder, and sugar), including highly concentrated nutrient supplements (1–4 teaspoons/day, 

providing < 100 kcal/day) suitable for “point-of-use“ fortification (Chaparro and Dewey 2010). Embedding the vitamins and minerals in fat protects vitamins from oxidation, increases the shelf life of the product, and masks the unpleasant taste of certain micronutrients. Because LNS do not contain water, they do not support microbial growth and can be safely stored and used in the home, even under poor hygienic conditions in tropical climates. 

 Different LNS products have been developed to prevent chronic malnutrition (i.e., stunting, < −2 heightfor-age z-score) and to treat severe acute malnutrition (i.e., severe wasting, < −3 weight-for-height zscore).

Guatemala, located in Central America, has the highest prevalence of chronic malnutrition in Latin 

America and among the highest in the world. Results from the last national survey indicated that 50% of Guatemalan children between the ages of 3 months and 5 years are stunted and 21% are severely 

stunted. These rates are even higher among indigenous children: 66% of them are estimated to be 

stunted and 31% severely stunted (MSPAS 2010).  

Information on dietary intake in Guatemalan young children is scarce. Enneman and collaborators 

reported results from a study with rural and urban Guatemalan 6- to 12-month-old infants (Enneman, 

Hernández, et al. 2009). They found that although the infants’ diets were diverse in complementary food (especially for 9- to 12-month-old infants), they lacked animal source foods. We found no data on fatty acid (FA) intake of children under 2 in Guatemala, but in school-aged children there is evidence of low intake of n-3 FA, with Bermudez reporting that > 97% of children consumed < 1% of energy from these fats (Bermudez, Toher, et al. 2010). Whole milk, sweet bread, and fried plantain were the main sources of n-3 FA; fried fish, seafood soup, and shrimp, consumed in low amounts and only by boys, were the main sources of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The authors concluded that α-linolenic acid, EPA, and DHA were the most limiting FA in diets of Guatemalan schoolchildren (Bermudez, Toher, et al. 2010)

The following research paper has tons of info in it. The section on childhood malnutrition is on page 4 and I think there are some tables on 27 & 28 that could give us some important info on which specific nutrients the children are lacking in their diets. Looks like there's lots of info on breast milk and mother nutrition too. 

The following images are linked to helpful news articles

Malnutrition Plagues Guatemala's Children

I found this great article PBS wrote on the problems of Malnutrition in Guatemala.  It addressed so many of the issues we have been thinking about. Check it out to gain a brief understanding of the problem we're facing in Guatemala. 

Some of the key things I took away from the article were:

• "a lack of education on what foods are important for children is part of the problem."
• "A person can have 12 tortillas and a Coke and will not be hungry but they won't be well nourished" 
• 49 percent of children in Guatemala are chronically malnourished according to the World Food Program—the fourth highest rate in the world. In indigenous communities the rate is closer to 70 percent.
• Chronic malnutrition causes stunted growth, the most obvious and widespread indicator in Guatemala, 
• Infections that cause diarrhea play a big roll in malnutrition of infants, but for many families the root problem comes down to numbers—too many mouths to feed, not enough food.
•  The boys will sometimes preferentially get food over the girls
• USAID also contributes between $16 to $18 million a year in food assistance to the country, including some higher protein commodities like beans and grains fortified with soy.
• Guatemala continues to have some of the poorest nutrition indicators in the region and once a child has been malnourished through crucial early development, it has long-lasting implications
• Guatemala has the highest rates of obesity among poor countries in Latin America, linked to malnutrition. 

Other organizations we might find helpful

• PAHO/WHO
• This page might provide some helpful organizations. 
• WFP
• USAID 
• ADISA

• ADISA

  
  http://mayacom.org/organizations/santiago.htm
  ADISA is a non-profit organization created for the sole purpose of bettering the quality of life of handicapped people and their families.
  Located in Canton Xechivoy, a suburb of the town of Santiago Atitlan, in the Department of Solola, on the south shore of Lake Atitla n. Santiago Atitlan is one of the 19 municipalities of the Department of Solola, home to approximately 35 thousand, the majority of whom are Tzutuhiles, descendants of the Mayas.
  Since 1997 when we began meeting with parents and families, to this date we have worked in Four Areas:
  1. Special Education
  2. Medical Assistance
  3. Employment/Integration
  4. Awareness/Prevention.
  
  
  
  

Introducing Our Project Blog

This is a blog simply for the purpose of having a place online (that is more user friendly than Google Drive) to collect and gather information for our research project and to easily communicate and collaborate as a group. If we keep it simple I think it will be a great way to stay connected throughout our research process and a great way to bookmark or document the research we find. What do you think? Oh and if this doesn't seem like something you'd want to do that is totally fine:) just thought I'd provide the option!