Doctor: Children Detected By Stunting Must Be Immediately Treated To Stay Smart

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Pediatrician Consultant Nutrition and Metabolic Disease of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) Damayanti Rusli Sjarif appealed to stunting detected children to be treated immediately to remain intelligent.

"Some studies show that the decline in intelligence due to stunting can still be improved by 90 percent, if done before the age of two with high nutritional therapy for calories and high protein, as well as playing stimulation," said dr. Damayanti in a BKKBN press release in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday, March 30.

He explained that children who were stunted and did not immediately get therapy, apart from not developing their brains, also have the potential to cause them to be vulnerable to suffering from various diseases in the future.

"In the long term, children who are malnourished will cause stunting that has an impact on endurance, decreased intelligence, late developments, and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and so on when they grow up," he said.

He also said that family planning cadres (KB) or family assistance teams (TPK) could immediately refer detected children to risk stunting to specialist doctors and provide nutrition or intake of high-protein foods.

"In addition to being referred to pediatricians, stunting is detected as stunting must be immediately given according to indications to pursue growth and regular control until toddlers recover from stunting to prevent a decline in intelligence," he said.

In addition, consuming good nutritional therapy in breast milk companion foods (MPASI) is also highly recommended, with animal protein every time you eat, such as eggs, chicken liver, red meat, chicken meat, fish, or milk.

He also emphasized that stunting is not considered a trivial and mediocre disease.

"Stunting should not be taken for granted. A child who suffers from stunting, then his brain is threatened with disorders. A child who is stunted is a marker of food to the brain is not enough, so that when he wants to go to school, the child will have difficulty taking lessons," he said.

He said, if the handling is late, then there is not much to be done.

"If you just wake up when you go to school, then there's not much we can do. The sooner we handle it, the sooner you recover and your brain is safe," he said.

Meanwhile, Director of Bina Keluarga Balita and Anak BKKBN Irma Ardiana stated that BKKBN already has a great parent website.id, which is a media for promotion and education for care and development of children's growth and development that can be accessed by anyone, anytime, and anywhere.

"On this website, great parents can access all programs of the Balit Family Development Directorate (BKB) and Children, including videos complete with webinars, resource persons' material access, to certificate downloads. One of the other features that is no less cool is the independent learning menu, where visitors can learn about parenting and elimination of stunting children problems by participating in the gold BKB class Sibima," said Irma.