Childhood stressors

     The fact that children have to deal with many different kinds of stress is true regardless of the source.  Some children have stress from pressure being put on them by their parents, some children have abuse in their home, some children are stressed because there is nothing to eat at home or maybe there is drug abuse in the home.  Stress can come from anywhere.  When I was growing up, we had four children and one parent.  My one parent did the best she could do and I have many fond memories of my childhood.  The thing I do remember being stressful for me and my sister (the one closest to my age) was we often did not know where our next meal was coming from.  There were a few families who would bring us food when we were really out and we ate a lot of Ramen noodles when we had them but for a while we did not have food around.  My sister and I cope by getting creative with the food we did have.  I remember eating brown sugar once because that was all there was.  Eventually, we started baby-sitting and we were able to buy some groceries as well to help out.

     The kind of hunger we experienced is nothing in comparison to real world hunger though.  According to www.worldhunger.org there were over 925 million hungry people in 2010.  That site also lists poverty, conflict, economics and even hunger/malnutrition leading to poverty, as some of the causes of hunger.  Children seem to suffer greatly as a result of world hunger.

     Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition.  Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year. Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--five million deaths.  Undernutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria. The estimated proportions of deaths in which undernutrition is an underlying cause are roughly similar for diarrhea (61%), malaria (57%), pneumonia (52%), and measles (45%) (Black 2003, Bryce 2005). Malnutrition can also be caused by diseases, such as the diseases that cause diarrhea, by reducing the body's ability to convert food into usable nutrients.

     According to the most recent estimate that Hunger Notes could find, malnutrition, as measured by stunting, affects 32.5 percent of children in developing countries--one of three (de Onis 2000). Geographically, more than 70 percent of malnourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. In many cases, their plight began even before birth with a malnourished mother. Under-nutrition among pregnant women in developing countries leads to 1 out of 6 infants born with low birth weight. This is not only a risk factor for neonatal deaths, but also causes learning disabilities, mental, retardation, poor health, blindness and premature death.  (www.worldhunger.org)

Lambo, 3, with his grandmother and mother, Samina Tahiaritsoa, at the Centre for Treatment of Acute Malnutrition with Complications (CRENI) in the town of Amboasary Sud. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), two out of three Malagasy live in poverty and 50 percent of children younger than five have stunted growth due to malnutrition.  "Above all, it's the poverty that's causing this," said CRENI's head doctor, Samuel Rasaivaonirina, adding that most wage earners support an average household of 10 people on just $10 a month.  Photo: Hannah McNeish/IRIN

Children who are born hungry know nothing else, I wish instead that they never knew hunger.  Maybe someday.