Within 0-59 months age bracket: PNC into 7,166 malnourished kids in nutri-depressed towns

By PIA-Bohol| 04:23 PM April 07, 2025

The Bohol Provincial Nutrition Council, along with its municipal counterparts are now into 281 kids that are severely underweight and another 1,750 kids that have been found to be underweight during the Operation Timbang Plus, according to Provincial Nutrition Coordinator Glenda Grafilo. 

Speaking during the recent Kapihan sa PIA, Grafilo said their program coincides with the programs of the Department of Health and the National Nutrition Council to get to the zero to 59 months old kids to get data on weights for age to determine wasting and heights for age to identify stunting cases. 

Of those stated above, the 2,031 kids over 95,281 of the kids with this age, make up for the 2.1 percent of them with malnutrition. 

As to height for age ratios, Bohol Barangay Nutrition Scholars as well as Barangay Nutrition Councils see 737 severely stunted kids and 4,398 stunted kids, or a 5.39 percent of the 95,281 kids of the age. 

With the task at hand, the PNC has succeeded in convincing the provincial government to put its money where the mouth is.

There has been over a 100% improvement in the provincial allocation for the 120 days of supplemental feeding focused on these identified wasted and stunted kids, Grafilo said. 

From a working budget of P9 million in 2022, governor Aumentado has put in P21 million, largely into the supplemental milk feeding program, knowing that the data from the Operation Timbang Plus is a good benchmark. 

For example, the nutrition coordinator cited a 2023 data when Bohol has a malnutrition prevalence of 2.27%. 

In a single year, 164 kids were normalized of the 2,165 kids given the necessary supplemental feeding and other interventions. 

By other interventions, she meant the increasing reach of nutrition information, education and communication in the Pabasa sa Nutrisyon, which is now recalibrated into Idol Ko si Nanay, where a community takes a unified approach to address stunting and wasting, underweight and overweight, which have all been categories of malnutrition. 

Idol ko si Nanay sessions talk about methods in countering malnutrition, solutions to nutrient supplementation in kids diets, and even addresses the pregnant who are nutritionally at risk with dietary supplementation and micro-nutrient supplementation. 

Everything starts with the first 1000 days, Grafilo pointed out, adding that these determine the state of nutrition the child gets when he is born.

The moment the mother starts conception, the first three months are the key to a child’s development, she said. 

And with the different reactions pregnancies bring, would be mothers may not be able to take in the right amount of iron and folic acids, which can be present in internal organs of slaughtered animals, vegetables and fruits, but their appetites dictate otherwise. 

For these women, we have micronutrient supplementation, where iron and folic acid is given to them, to supplement whatever food they can take in, she explained. ‘

Then supplied by the Department of Health, these micro-nutrients are now available at rural health centers and even at the barangay health stations, with LGUS now stocking on these as a result of the Mandanas rule, the nutri-coordinator pressed.  

The Idol ko si Nanay also reminds every mother to continue breastfeeding until 2 years, mother’s milk as a superfood. 

And to the kids, Grafilo said with a bigger budget, aside from the milk supplemental feeding, school kids also get the milky bun, to complete their day’s supplementation. (PIABohol)