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Human Ecology and Family Sciences Common health and nutrition problems in infants and young children We have learnt in Chapter X in Part I how malnutrition and infections are interrelated. In fact malnutrition is a national problem. It is a consequence of several factors such as illiteracy, poverty, ignorance about nutritional needs of children, and poor access to health care, especially in rural and tribal areas. Children begin to be malnourished when breast milk is no longer available in adequate amounts and they continue to remain so till they can make full use of the family diet. During this period incidence of diarrhoea is very common in infants. It results in depletion of water and electrolytes from the body and this condition is a major cause of infant mortality. Research evidence favours the view that nutritional factors play a role in causation of tuberculosis particularly in populations subjected to food shortage. Primary herpes simplex is another infectious disease which affects children if they are suffering from malnutrition at the same time. Nutritional deficiency diseases may set in at this stage if the infant is not exclusively breast fed and when complementary foods do not meet the 158 nutrient needs of infants. Let us list the important deficiency diseases that may occur in childhood precisely • Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM): leads to growth retardation and infections leading to diarrhoea and dehydration • Anemia : caused due to iron deficiency • Nutritional blindness : results due to vitamin A deficiency • Rickets and osteopenia are bone-related : due to shortage of vitamin D and calcium • Goitre (enlargement of the thyroid gland) : due to deficiency of Iodine Much of the major effects of nutrition on communicable diseases have already been focussed in the previous chapter. The six dreaded communicable diseases namely polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pertusis, measles and tetanus compound the incidence of mortality and morbidity, more so in developing countries like India. The low age of attack is one more factor responsible for high fatality. The problem worsens when infection and malnutrition co-exist in the same infant. Immunisation given at different stages of the first year of life gives life-long immunity to children against communicable diseases. In rural and tribal areas, factors such as poor access to health centres, climatic conditions, certain local customs, and use of untested traditional methods of treatment increase the child’s susceptibility to infectious diseases. There is need to inform people about the health hazards of contaminatedfood,poorenvironmentalsanitationandinadequatepersonal hygiene and their role in causing communicable diseases. Reprint 2026-27