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Panel approves nutrition norms
Why in the news ?
- The National Technical Board on Nutrition (NTBN) has approved guidelines proposed by Ministry for severe acute malnutrition.
- India’s top nutrition panel has recommended that severely malnourished children must be fed freshly cooked food.
More about the news
Guidelines for nutritional management of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM):
- The fresh food should be prepared from locally available cereals, pulses and vegetables.
- It should be distributed by anganwadi centres.
- The guidelines outline the role of anganwadi workers and auxillary nurse midwives (ANMs) in identifying severely wasted children, segregating those with oedema or medical complications and sending them to the nearest health facility or nutrition rehabilitation centres.
- The remaining children are enrolled into “community based management”, which includes :
- provision of nutrition,
- continuous monitoring of growth,
- administration of antibiotics and
-micro-nutrients as well as counselling sessions and imparting of nutrition and health education.
- Aganwadi workers have to provide modified morning snacks, hot cooked meals and take home ration for SAM children.
- Government has also revised the method to be used to measure wasting and advised calculating weight based on the height of children instead of the mid-upper arm circumference.
Source
The Hindu.