Tasty or not, proper nutrition is essential to every child’s healthy development. Without it, the body won’t function normally: the immune system struggles to fight infection, bone growth is stunted, and cognitive development lags behind.
Children who don’t have a permanent parental figure in their lives are more at risk for under-nutrition, priming them for other devastating delays in their childhood development. Children living in institutions are still at risk for malnutrition from the type of foods they are fed. Porridge, a staple of many orphanage kitchens, is inexpensive and easy to cook for large groups. Oats and honey may sustain hunger, but a solid diet of porridge (or any one item) doesn’t provide the complete nutrition for any growing child.
OrphanNutrition.org is a collection of nutrition resources created to increase advocacy and awareness on this global problem among orphaned children. The website is an initiative of A Child’s Best Start, a Mead-Johnson organization committed to improving nutrition conditions for children. It shares, information on nutrition best practices, food safety practices, and individual country data on nutrition. Orphan Nutrition has also started humanitarian initiatives to provide specially designed bottles for babies born with cleft palettes.
Be sure to visit the site to read all the valuable information on orphan malnutrition, and find out ways you can help stop this preventable problem from growing.