Eating more doesn't mean he or she is eating right. A Pudgy preschooler who is packing on the pounds might not be starved of nutrients, but instead is "stuffed" with excessive nutrients.
Yes, both the fat and thin child could be malnorished. How is this so? Well, malnutrition, in simple terms, is defined as a state of poor nutrition resulting from insufficient or excessive nutritional intake.
The short and thin of it
Over-nutrition childhood is an important concern. But the media's fixation on, and attention to, this problem tends to obscure the fact that we actually have more under-nourished children than overnourished.
Under-nutrition is a form of malnutrition. In disadvantaged communities where foods is scarce, under-nutrition could be so severe that it results in protein-energy malnutrition[PEM]. Victims are usually seen in famine-and poverty-stricken countries where emaciation occurs and skin would be hanging off bones. Fortunately PEM is rare here.
This, however, doesn't mean that we can all heave a sigh of relief. In a nationwide survey from 1998 to 2000 of children less than six years old, the Ministry of Health/UNICEF reported that 19% were underweight while 16.7% were stunted. A subsequent survey said that the overall prevalence of underweight among children aged below five years had dropped a little to 17.3% in 2004.
In poorer communities, underweight and stunting in children are even more pronounced, registering around 25%.
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