VELOCITY
OF GROWTH IN CHILDREN RECOVERING FROM SEVERE MALNUTRITION
Leopoldo Vega Franco, Maria del Carmen
Inarritu, Beatriz E. Robles
Dept. Public Health, School of
Medicine Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Since
1979 a small Nutritional Rehabilitation Center has been operating in Mexico
City. In the first 20 years 1444 children below 4 years of age were
recovered from malnutrition.
Objective: To determine the rate of growth of the
malnourished children in regard to the laps of treatment and age.
Methods: A 10% randomized sample was taken from the
clinical records; it was considered the number of children treated by year
of age, this way 152 children were selected. The nutritional status at
admission and at recovery was evaluated by U.S. National Center of Health
Statistics (NCHS) z-scores for weight/age (W/A), height/age [or length/age]
(H/A) and weight for height (W/H) (see table). The anthropometric
measurements were taken weekly; the diet of the children was according to
the age of the child. All of these children were feed ad libitum. Two or
three weeks after admission, the children ordinarily received more than 160
kcal and around 4 g of protein per kilogram.
Results:
The mean rates until the children went
home, are presented in the table: the increments of weight are shown
related to g/day and g/kg weight/day.
|
|
z-score
|
|
|
|
|
Age
|
At
admission
|
At
go out
|
Increment
|
|
|
(months)
|
n
|
W/H
|
n
|
W/H
|
g/day
|
g/kg/day
|
|
0-5
|
32
|
-1.7
|
4
|
-0.5
|
22.2
|
7.1
|
|
|
6-11
|
59
|
-1.9
|
37
|
-0.1
|
20.4
|
4.6
|
|
|
12-17
|
35
|
-2.4
|
60
|
-0.4
|
20.9
|
3.8
|
|
|
18-23
|
15
|
-2.3
|
29
|
-0.5
|
26.4
|
3.9
|
|
|
24-49
|
11
|
-2.0
|
22
|
-0.6
|
35.5
|
4.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Conclusion.
The growth rates were higher between the
third and tenth week, several times faster as those of normal children of
similar age. When they reached their expected weight for height the volume
of feeding fell and the growth rate declined.