TEHRAN –The implementation of a child care nutrition program has led to a 40-percent reduction in malnutrition among children under five years of age, according to an official with the health ministry.

The program has successfully improved acute malnutrition (severe thinness) in 40 percent of cases, IRNA quoted Ahmad Esmaeilzadeh as saying.

Child Care Nutrition Program was launched in the fall of 2023 with the aim to improve the nutritional status of children through means testing and the cooperation of the National Plan and Budget Organization and the Ministry of Cooperative, Labor, and Social Welfare.

Out of 179,519 children introduced by the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education, 133,690 were eligible based on the results of the test and were covered by the program. Nutritional education, counseling, and monitoring are carried out by the health centers, the official said.

Approximately, 50 percent of children received nutrition counseling services. The program’s effectiveness is demonstrated by a 70 percent improvement in severely thin children, a 66 percent improvement in underweight children, and a 57 percent improvement in short children.

As part of the program 18,611 mothers of children aged 6 to 12 months (83.6 percent) and 99, 992 mothers of children aged 12 to 59 months (85.9 percent) received nutritional training from health staff, Esmaeilzadeh stated.

The official went on to say that despite challenges, the program has shown a positive, significant, and meaningful impact on the improvement of anthropometric indicators of children (weight for height, weight for age, and height for age).

By meeting the nutritional needs of children, the program has been able to improve acute malnutrition (severe thinness) by 40 percent.  In 30 percent of cases, it has improved the index so that children are classified as thin rather than severely thin, he said.

In other words, increasing access to foodstuff needed by children has been effective in the recovery of over 60 percent of severely underweight and 42 percent of underweight children, whose weight for age chart at the end of the program shows a normal range.

The child care nutrition program has resulted in the recovery of 57 percent of cases of severely short children (with 26 percent recovered and 31 percent currently recovering), and some 57 percent of cases of short children (with 32.5 percent recovered and 24.4 percent currently recovering), the official further noted.

MT/MG