Professor of IPB: Lack of Nutrition Affects Badly up to Three Generations
Professor of the Faculty of Human Ecology, Bogor Agricultural University (FEMA-IPB), Prof.Dr. Siti Madanijah, gave a scientific speech in Darmaga Campus of IPB Saturday (24/10), with the title " Nutritional Education: Science and Applications in the First 1000 Days of Life Movement Towards Golden Generation". According to her, the nutritional problem during fetal period and childhood in a short-term affects growth and development including growth and development of the brain and various organs, metabolic disorders as well as the working disorders of cells and organs in the body. The long term effects are a decline in cognitive ability and learning achievement, immune disorders – causing to become ill easily, and the high risk of non-communicable diseases such as stroke, coronary heart disease, and diabetes, and disability at old age. Thus, this leads to the low quality of human resources (HR) and productivity.
"The barriers to nutritional improvement are inadequate knowledge and incorrect practices. Most people do not realize the importance of nutrition during pregnancy and the first two years of life. For example, try not to have large fetus in the womb as later it will be difficult to give birth, but make it bigger when it is born. This is wrong," she said.
Some identified problems during the First Thousand Days of Life include marriage at a young age, the high prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls and pregnant women, chronic lack of energy in pregnant women, maternal and infant mortality rates, low weight at birth and and shorter bodies at birth, as well as the high prevalence of stunting (short) in infants and toddlers.
"These problems will degrade the quality of a generation and will even continue to the next generation if not solved immediately; it can even continue up to three generations," she added.
Prof Madanijah said, community nutrition education or in practice called Communication, Information, and Education (CIE) of nutrition, aims to create the same understanding of the definition of nutrition, nutritional problems, causes of nutritional problems, and good and right practices of food consumption for nutrition improvement.
Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement is an activity that is set up to accelerate the expansion and improvement of nutrition in the world with a focus on the first 1000 Days of Life, from conception up to two years. In Indonesia, the movement known as National Movement of Nutrition Improvement Acceleration in the First Thousand Day of Life (HPK 1000). This movement is supported by the Presidential Decree No. 42/2013 on the Nutrition Improvement Acceleration Movement. The program includes specific and sensitive programs.
The specific program is carried out directly on the target group of HPK 1000 by the health sector, namely pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, infants of 0-6 months, as well as infants and children aged 7-23 months. Meanwhile, the sensitive program is an indirect activity carried out by non-health sectors with the target of the general public, for example, supply of clean water, sanitation, various poverty alleviation, food security and nutrition, food fortification, communication of nutrition CIE,, education and health CIE, as well as gender equality
"It is important to implement an effective strategy to reach them across the country with a nutritional intervention. One is by setting up an empowering community so that it can keep going," she said. (Mtd)
