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More babies, young kids going hungry in US

US Department of Agriculture
High price in fruits and vegetables contribute to malnourishment and overweight.
Baltimore, Maryland / AFP
06/17/2005

Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, amid a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese.

In the working class port city of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Maureen Black, a pediatrician, sees numbers of underweight babies in her clinic, specialized in infant malnutrition and located in one of the poorer areas.

"In the first year of life, children triple their birth weight," said Black, "and if children do not have enough to eat during those very early times, you first see that their weight will falter and then their height will falter."

"If their height falters enough and they experience stunting under age two, they are then at risk for academic and behaviour problems" at school, said Black.
Paradoxically, malnutrition is not always due to lack of food -- rather to the quality of the food being consumed.

"People often ask me how many children go to bed hungry. The answer is the parents work very hard so they don't go to bed feeling hungry. The parents try to fill the baby up with French fries and soda pop," said Frank.

In some areas, green vegetables and fruit are impossible to buy -- even in a can, because there may be no supermarket. Moreover, such items are costly. "What happens in America is -- what seems bizarre -- that some of the recommendations that we give to families to prevent underweight of children are the same as we give to prevent overweight," said Black. "We recommend families not to give their children junk food."

In some families, eating junk food will mean one child is obese while the other is underweight, said Black. "The first will eat junk food and nothing else, the second will eat junk food and everything else."