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According to National Nutritional 2018, “Every fourth child in Pakistan
is suffering from Iron deficiency”. 7138 children aged between 6–9
months were included in the analysis. The prevalence of IDA was 33.2%.
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is common in Pakistani population and an
important cause of morbidity. Iron deficiency is the result of an iron
imbalance in the intestines, which lead to a weak immune system as
children grow. Only if this prevalence rate was lower today our nation
would have been able to fight the CoVid-19 pandemic with a stronger
immune system.
These numbers are quite alarming and pose a threat to the future of
Pakistan; because of the fact that a child’s brain is, developed 80% in
the initial 2 years we cannot afford to ruin or disable their future, as
they are the future of Pakistan. Hence declaring it as a national issue
will enable us to safeguard the future of our children. Our very own
Musician/Philanthropist Shehzad Roy agreed to the fact and urged people
not to take the situation lightly and fight it with full force
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The symptoms are usually covered up by blaming the child for not
listening in the class and eventually failing. Your child might not be
at fault, because if your child is behaving in any of the 4 ways there
is a probability that they are suffering from IDA: Lack of attention,
Fatigue/ exhaustion, repeatedly becoming sick and Breathlessness. The
worst part about being in such a situation is that a child cannot
explain exactly how they are feeling and become victims of speculation
and societal norms.
Because of the dif¬ferent contributing factors for the development of
anemia in children, information of its prevalence, distribution and
etiology are important for adopting appropriate measures for its
prevention and control. In Pakistan, nutritional anemia has been
recog¬nized to be the most common type of malnutrition present in
children. Its roots come back from 1977 when micronutrient survey of
Pakistan was held; about 38% of the population was identified to be
anemic. According to the 1988 National Nutrition Survey of Pakistan, 65%
of the children aged 7 - 60 months were found to be anemic.
In comparison with grown-up children, a growing child needs 3 times more
nutrition than them to develop & grow as a healthy kid. As soon as
children reach 6 months of age they should be given a healthy diet full
of nutrients, vitamins & minerals; moreover, Iron should be the major
part of their diet. A list of the iron-rich foods includes Eggs, Meat,
Spinach and Iron-fortified products.
Pakistan Society of Food & Science Technologists (PSFST) has been
working for this cause to create awareness in our society regarding iron
deficiency and also joined hands with a social activist, humanitarian &
talented singer Shehzad Roy to highlight this issue.
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Make sure to get the right dose of iron & to join the cause; notice such
symptoms to keep your loved ones safe and healthy; while children are
the future of our country so, make sure to give them the right nutrition
in these difficult times and let us pledge “Iron ki Kami Ab Nahi!
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