The long-term prognosis of severe infantile malnutrition

ABSTRACT

65 Jamaican children who had been treated for severe malnutrition in hospital were traced and examined 2-8 years after their discharge from hospital. They were found to be small by North American standards, but not when they were compared with Jamaican children, similar genetically and from the same economic background. When 56 of the previously malnourished children were matched with siblings or close relatives as controls they were slightly taller and heavier, broader in the chest, and had thicker bone and muscle in the leg than the sibling who had never been severely malnourished. There is no clear evidence that a period of severe malnutrition in infancy per se causes stunting of growth in children as it does in some animals. On the contrary, children who have been successfully treated for malnutrition tend to outgrow their siblings when they return home; this may have a genetic basis.(Summary)