The home environment of the malnourished-deprived child

The extent of childhood malnutrition-deprivation throughout the world is indicated and its nature and the forms it takes are described. An account is given of several studies carried out by the author and his colleagues in Lebanon. An investigation of failure to thrive in young children revealed that in an apparently homogenous low socioeconomic group there was a wide spectrum of physical growth which correlated closely with a number of home environment variables. Another study of the mental development of some of these children carried out over several years showed that children with even mild growth failure had a statistically significant impairment of mental development as compared with their apparently healthy siblings, also living in a home environment characterized by deprivation. The far reaching consequences are emphasized. In a third study which investigated the formal education of mothers, their nutritional knowledge and practices and the growth of their children, the indices were found to be interrelated to some extent. Finally, a small study gave some indication, perhaps contrary to general belief, that the rapid social change undergone by families who migrate from the country to an urban slum may be associated with an improvement in nutrition of the children.