The social background of childhood nutrition in the Ciskei

Some socio-economic factors in well-nourished children, children with low weight for age, but without signs of kwashiorkor or marasmus and children with obvious kwashiorkor were compared.

The well-nourished and stunted children came from very similar homes, except that the stunted children were poorer. Typically they were in the care of their own mothers and supported by their fathers.

In contrast, children with kwashiorkor came from disorganized homes. Typically they had been deserted by their fathers and less than half were in the care of their mothers. In addition, many were in the care of unsuitable guardians.

It was concluded that the main cause of low weight for age in the Ciskei is poverty, while the main cause of kwashiorkor is the disruption of family life, associated, in this area, with the migrant labour system and occurring in a poverty situation.

The mothers' educational experience in the three groups was similar and bore no relationship to their children's nutrition.

The solution to malnutrition in the Ciskei is considered to be the reestablishment of African family life based on viable employment with an economic wage structure which allows the members of a family to live together under one roof.