Lack Of Parental Attention And Poor Custody Cause Stunting In Ende

JAKARTA - The stunting case is still a serious challenge in Ende Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Although this area is known to have abundant food resources, stunting rates remain high due to a lack of attention to parenting and child nutritional intake.

The habits of parents who are more focused on work, especially in the agricultural sector, contribute to this problem.

Head of the Family Health and Nutrition Division of the Ende District Health Office (Dinkes), Maria A. Eka, revealed that many parents in the Datusoko District left their children for weeks during the planting season.

As a result, children do not get sufficient attention, both in terms of care and nutritional adequacy.

The farmers there spend up to five weeks in the fields during the planting season. The children they leave are usually cared for by their grandparents or other relatives, but their nutritional intake is often not noticed," Maria said at the AMPUH Program socialization event (Action to Prevent Malnutrition with Daily Egg Food) initiated by the Wahana Vision Indonesia Foundation (WVI).

In fact, according to him, technically, it only takes one family for about a week to complete the rice planting process. However, due to the habit of mutual cooperation in the group, they just returned home after all group members finished their work.

This condition causes an imbalance in children's nutrition which lasts for months in a year, considering that there are two to three seasons of planting in one year. As a result, even though Ende Regency has good food potential, cases of malnutrition remain high.

Based on the latest data from the Ende Health Office, there were 1,242 stunting cases out of a total of 15,000 children, or around 7.9 percent. Although this figure shows a decline compared to the previous year which reached 8.2 percent, this problem still requires serious attention.

The local government has tried to increase nutritional intake for children by encouraging higher protein consumption and implementing stunting convergence programs in 21 sub-districts, 278 villages, and 26 health centers. Since August 2023, health service reforms have also been implemented by expanding posyandu coverage through the concept of Primary Service Integration (ILP).

Maria revealed that the coverage of posyandu services in Ende almost reached 100 percent, with children's participation reaching 92.3 percent. However, the challenge in parental assistance is still homework.

"We need a more comprehensive approach, not only through nutrition socialization, but also involving various parties, including law enforcement officials and volunteers. We also have to deal with social problems related to stunting, such as early marriage and pregnancy outside of marriage," he explained.

Early marriage and pregnancy cases due to inses are increasingly widespread in Ende. Maria said that some of the 7-8 percent of children who were not registered in the posyandu service came from this group. Many of them feel ashamed or morally burdened, so they are reluctant to take their children to posyandu to get nutritional monitoring.

To overcome this problem, the Ende District Health Office welcomed various initiatives from the WVI Foundation, such as a nutrition post program for child monitoring, community assistance in posyandu, and efforts to create food independence through a nutrition kitchen.

One of the innovative programs implemented is the prevention of malnutrition with eggs, which not only provide direct protein intake, but also distribute laying hen seeds to the public. In this way, residents can get a sustainable source of protein.

"Assistance is very much needed in handling stunting. Therefore, it is necessary to involve various parties in an integrated approach that we refer to as stunting convergence," concluded Maria.