Short And Stunting Differences, Don't Get Salah Bunda

High Child Body (Photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The term stunting has become popular lately because the government movement has suppressed stunting rates to prepare the Indonesian Gold generation. One indicator of stunting is that the height of the child does not develop according to the age of the child. However, not all short children can be called stunting.

Pediatrician from the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) Prof. Aman Bhakti Pulungan said that short posture children do not mean stunting but still have to be checked for growth and development. "Stunting is short but not all short children are stunted," said Prof. Aman, quoted from ANTARA, Thursday, November 10.

According to WHO, stunting is a growth and development disorder experienced by children due to malnutrition, repeated infections, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Stunting also affects the development of the child's brain which has an impact on their intelligence.

Prof. Aman said that to define a short child stunting or not, it can be seen based on the growth table.

If the child's height and weight are not growing, he can be said to be stunted. Meanwhile, children who have normal weight but do not get higher can be considered by looking at family genetics.

"If it's short because the family is short, we can count it from genetic potential, parent height and usually he weighs normal," said Prof. Aman.

"But don't overeat him later he will be obese (excessive weight). This heavy and high curve is the key," he continued.

However, Prof. Aman also said that children who are not growing in height must be examined by experts to be seen if genetic disorders occur.

"If he is short because of genetic disorders, he can be examined, his genetic disorders can be russel silver syndrome," said Prof. Aman.

Prof. Aman reminded parents to always update their knowledge and continue to learn about children's growth and development. According to him, this is very useful to prevent stunting.

"We must understand that it is short because of malnutrition and chronic infection. Stunting does not suddenly have a cause," he said.