ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evidence on nutritional deficiencies affecting children's development. The effect of stunting on intellectual development used cross-sectional, longitudinal, and interventional designs. It describes protein-energy-malnutrition (PEM), breastfeeding, iron, iodine, and zinc deficiencies, and short-term hunger. It discusses the studies of severely malnourished children who were hospitalized with marasmus, kwashiorkor, or marasmic kwashiorkor followed by studies of mild to moderate malnutrition. The chapter explains possible mechanisms linking iron deficiency to poor development, followed by observational studies and then treatment trials. Child development is affected by many environmental factors both psychosocial and biological. The biological factors include poor health and nutrition which frequently occur together the one predisposing to the other. The diagnosis of PEM depends on having weights, heights, or weights-for-height below a certain cut-off level when compared with internationally accepted references. The term Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) describes the spectrum of effects of iodine deficiency and includes goiter, endemic cretinism, neuromotor delays, and increased pre and postnatal mortality.
