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Eur J Pediatr (2010) 169:253255 DOI 10.1007/s00431-009-1041-x
CORRESPONDENCE
WHO child growth standards
Mrinal Kanti Das & Nabanita Bhattacharyya &
Amiya Kumar Bhattacharyya
Received: 7 March 2009 /Accepted: 30 July 2009 /Published online: 12 August 2009 # Springer-Verlag 2009
Dear Editor,Van den Broeck et al. commented on the expected impact of the new growth standards: The full scope of this effect will gradually become clear while researchers, similar to health care workers, make the transition to using, reevaluating results of past approaches, and exploring the uses and functional validity of the standards, including those for indices that were not previously available [7].
WHO Growth and Development charts, (http://www.who.int/childgrowth
Web End =www.who.int/ http://www.who.int/childgrowth
Web End =childgrowth , 2005), confirm that children born anywhere in the world and given the optimum start in life have the potential to develop to within the same range of height and weight. Differences in childrens growth up to age five are more influenced by nutrition, feeding practices, environment, and healthcare than genetics or ethnicity. The standards are expected to help early intervention [5].
We try to analyze the usefulness of the WHO Growth standards in the Indian context, past and present. In India, kwashiorkor was first reported in mid-1940s, and by 1955, the magnitude of the problem became so immense that the government had to act. In an all-India survey (19551960) of preschool children under the Indian Council of Medical Research showed the prevalence of kwashiorkor in about 2%, a little more than in marasmus. Many (6080%) were underweight and under-length/height. They were called children with mildmoderate malnutrition. Global action over the decades eased the situation considerably, and now, the general international trend, excepting some African countries, is decline in undernutrition, virtual disappearance of severe cases, and emerging stuntingwasting (SW) [5]. The Indian scenario is virtually similar.
India launched its Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) in 1975. ICDS provides a package of services for 06-year-old children and pregnant and lactating mothers. The package includes supplementary nutrition, immunization, health checkup with growth monitoring, referral services, health and nutrition education, and nonformal preschool education for the 35-year age group. During the 6th five-year plan, ICDS achieved the status of a national programme. At present, ICDS covers 54.3 million children under the age of...