How a small measuring tape combats malnutrition

Ms. Never Brend says in her demonstration that when you measure your baby and the measuring tape remains green, it means the child is receiving a balanced diet and is healthy. She adds that when the color is yellow, it is a sign that the baby is slipping into the malnutrition stage, and “we call the VHT (Village Health Team) to refer this baby to the health center for treatment.”

According to Ms. Brend, if the tape stops in the red, it means that the child is already malnourished and should be immediately referred to the hospital for rapid medical attention.

MUAC is a measurement that allows healthcare professionals to quickly determine whether a patient is acutely malnourished by measuring the circumference of a patient’s arm midway between his/her shoulder and elbow. The color of the measuring tape that stops indicates whether the child is malnourished or not. .

Ms Brend says that thanks to the training they have received from Unicef, the Swedish Government and the Ugandan Government, they are now able to carry out their children’s monthly measurements and have learned how important it is for their children to have a balanced diet. .

“Before this program came along, people would eat the same type of food over and over again. They didn’t know which foods provide energy or contain protein, but with this program we can eat a balanced diet. We are also trained to create small gardens behind our houses to plant greenery to balance our diet,” says Ms Brend.

Ms Hilda Kawuki, a UNICEF official, said they were able to introduce this simple tape measure to more than 13,000 households in the West Nile sub-region in a bid to reduce the high rates of malnutrition plaguing the region.

“What was missing was the level of community screening. We found that many children were diagnosed at a late stage, but early screening is still a preventive form of resolving malnutrition. If you screen them early, you can treat them or reverse the malnutrition before it becomes severe,” Ms. Kawuki explained during the media tour of West Nile last week.

She added: “We used to lose many children to malnutrition because it was only noticed late, when the children were anaemic, which increased maternal mortality in the region. We looked at the way to prevent the mortality rates due to malnutrition by coming up with the family MUAC, which is a small tool but has solved so many problems. That is why we prefer prevention.”

Statistics obtained from Arua Regional Referral Hospital show that the facility admits an average of 26 children per month to the inpatient therapeutic care unit, while 30 children are admitted to the outpatient therapeutic care unit.

According to Ms Christine Nabwire, a health worker, this involves a large number of malnourished children.

Statistics obtained from Arua Regional Referral Hospital show that the facility admits an average of 26 children per month to the inpatient therapeutic care unit, while 30 children are admitted to the outpatient therapeutic care unit.