Effects of Malnourishment on Children when they Age - Term Paper Example

It is not starvation or poverty as such. It has got wider meaning than just poverty or starvation. In some occasions, malnutrition also means excess of afore said vitamins and minerals adversely affecting the good health of a person. However, it is the problem of under nutrition that most nations are concerned with. It is the children who mostly fall victims to under nutrition. These children may get food to satisfy their hunger but not inevitably the nutrients and minerals that are necessary for the proper development.

It is estimated that more than fifty percent of the child deaths in the developing countries are due to malnutrition. Those who survive end up with life time problems. Similarly, it is wrong to assume that an overweight child is healthy. The fatty foods and chocolate bars one consumes will surely bring him into troubles such as fatness and cholesterol. Children being the future human resource reservoirs of a nation, any government neglecting attention to this, are compromising its own human resource needs of future.

For the proper development and functioning of the human body vitamins and minerals are a must. They are unavoidable in the case of children as the momentum of growth is augmented at this age. The deficiency of minerals like calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium, zinc and vitamins have their effects always on a growing child. As Scrimshaw (n.d.) points out, calcium is one of the major minerals lacked by children of under developed countries in their diet. It has a good involvement in the healthy development of bones and teeth of young people.

The hardness of the bones is due to the presence of adequate calcium elements in the body. Due to the deficiency of calcium a lot of problems may occur to children. The most important among the bone disease caused by calcium deficiency is Osteoporosis that causes fractures in weak bones and makes bones easier to break. When children grow up, they deficiency they had in the childhood will have its effects and their bones will likely to be broken at the slightest collision or clash. At the growing age, children are expected to be exuberant and rushing everywhere causing little damage to their own bodies.

However, children who suffer from Osteoporosis are not likely to be active and vibrant like normal children and are about to badly harm them if they try to behave like normal children. Another effect of malnourishment on children is their paled color. This paled color of the skin is caused by anemia. Iron deficiency is a major cause of this illness. It is the presence of iron that ensures sufficient number of red blood cells in the human body (Iron-Deficiency Anaemia). The anemia infected children will be fatigue and usually inactive.

There may not be sufficient blood circulation in their body to make them energetic. It may also pave way to poisoning and infections and losing immunity power of body or may even cause behavioral problems among children. Children who did not get adequate magnesium content diet may fall victims to problems like tingling, numbing and hallucination. Being frozen and indulge in day dreaming causing behavioral problems such as being introvert and sensitive. The symptoms of the deficiency of this mineral are fatigue, drowsiness and weakness.

Absence of minerals like potassium elements in blood leads to a number of common diseases such as hypertension, osteoporosis and kidney stone. It is potassium that works to regulate blood pressure and muscle contraction. Increasing blood pressure is a sign of lack of potassium in blood.