Makindo Medical Notes

🍽️ Causes of Malnutrition

• Inadequate Dietary Intake:
  • ⚡ Insufficient Calories: Not consuming enough food to meet daily energy needs.
  • 🥬 Nutrient Deficiencies: Lack of essential vitamins and minerals (e.g., iron → anaemia, vitamin A → night blindness, iodine → goitre).
• Poor Feeding Practices:
  • 👶 Infant Feeding: Inappropriate breastfeeding practices, early or late introduction of solids.
  • 🍲 Weaning: Poor transition to balanced, nutrient-rich solid foods.
• Health Conditions:
  • 🧬 Chronic Diseases: e.g., cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, congenital heart disease.
  • 🤒 Acute Illnesses: Repeated infections, diarrhoea, and gastrointestinal disorders leading to poor absorption.
• Socioeconomic Factors:
  • 💰 Poverty: Limited access to nutritious food, healthcare, and clean water.
  • 📚 Lack of Education: Poor awareness of nutritional requirements and healthy feeding practices.
• Environmental Factors:
  • 🚱 Poor Sanitation: Increases risk of diarrhoea and infections.
  • 🌍 Food Insecurity: Inconsistent availability and affordability of healthy food.

🧩 Clinical Features

• ⚖️ Underweight: Low weight-for-age.
• 📏 Stunting: Low height-for-age (chronic malnutrition).
• 🥀 Wasting: Low weight-for-height (acute malnutrition).
• 🩸 Micronutrient Deficiencies:
  • Iron → Anaemia
  • Vitamin A → Night blindness
  • Iodine → Goitre

🧪 Assessment

• Anthropometry:
  • Weight-for-Age (WFA)
  • Height-for-Age (HFA)
  • Weight-for-Height (WFH)
• Dietary Assessment:
  • 🍎 Food frequency questionnaires
  • 📝 24-hour dietary recall
• Clinical Examination: Look for oedema, skin/hair changes, delayed growth.
• Laboratory Tests: Haemoglobin, electrolytes, vitamins, minerals.

⚕️ Management

• Nutritional Interventions: Balanced diet, micronutrient supplementation (iron, vitamin A, zinc).
• Feeding Practices: Exclusive breastfeeding (first 6 months), safe weaning, age-appropriate meals.
• Medical Care: Treat infections promptly, therapeutic foods (RUTF) for severe acute malnutrition.
• Education & Community Support: Nutrition counselling for caregivers, school feeding programs, community-based nutrition campaigns.
• Socioeconomic Interventions: Food security programs, poverty alleviation, improved sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

🌟 Key Point

Malnutrition is both a medical and a social problem. Early recognition and intervention save lives, while long-term prevention requires tackling poverty, education, and food security.