According to China Daily today, a survey in
southwest China's Guizhou
Province and neighboring Yunnan
and Qinghai
provinces found that nearly one-third of children in poorest areas
were malnourished, though it did not say when the research was
conducted or published or who ran it.
"The problem often surfaces when mothers stop
breastfeeding their babies," Han Junhua, a researcher from the
Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, said at a Symposium on
Child Nutrition and Health. Where or when it was held and who
organized it were not reported.
According to the survey's results, more than 29
percent of those under five years old in the three provinces'
poorest regions gained weight slower than normal.
In contrast, China Daily said 30 percent of
the urban population is overweight and about 1 percent of urban
children malnourished.
Han said that in rural areas, parents often depend
on cheap syrup, malt, orange juice and even coke to feed their
children.
"As a result," she said, "toddlers in
underdeveloped regions are also generally shorter than kids in
cities." However, in cities where milk, milk formula, yogurt and
many other foodstuffs are available, severe obesity now affects 16
to 20 percent of youngsters.
Han's Beijing-based institute conducted a survey of
over 200,000 people across the country, including 23,400 children
aged five and below, which found the average birth weight of
babies topped 3,300 grams, nearing the level of developed
countries, though newborns in rural areas were less heavy.
In addition, young people between three and 18
years old are on average three centimeters taller than a decade
ago.
But the survey also found that 25 percent of
children two years old and below in cities and 33 percent in rural
areas suffer anemia.
China Daily's report did not say
when the institute's national survey was conducted or
published.
(China Daily October 8, 2005)