More babies, young kids going hungry in US (Blame Dubya's proposed cuts in welfare aid)

An American butcher. Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese(AFP/File/Stan Honda)

BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) - Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese.

In 2003, 11.2 percent of families in the United States experienced hunger, compared with 10.1 percent in 1999, according to most recent official figures, released on National Hunger Awareness Day held this year on Tuesday, June 7.

Some pediatricians worry that cuts in welfare aid proposed in President George W. Bush's 2006 budget will only exacerbate the situation. By contrast Bush plans to keep tax cuts for more affluent sectors of the population, they note.

In the working class port city of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Maureen Black, a pediatrician, sees numbers of underweight babies in her clinic specialized in infant malnutrition located in one of the poorer areas.

"In the first year of life, children triple their birth weight," said Black, "and if children do not have enough to eat during those very early very times, you first see that their weight will falter and then their height will falter."

"If their height falters enough and they experience stunting under age two, they are then at risk for academic and behaviour problems" at school, said Black.

Dr. Deborah Frank, a professor of pediatrics at Boston University's School of Medicine, who also runs a specialised clinic for malnourished babies, has similar concerns.

"We are seeing more and more very young babies under a year of age which is a particular concern because they are most likely to die of under nutrition, and also their brains are growing very very rapidly," said Frank, in a telephone interview.

"A baby's brain increases 2.5 times in size in the first year of life," she says, adding that if the baby fails to get the nutritional building blocks he or she needs for the brain to develop, a child can have lifelong difficulties in behaviour and learning.

But infant-child protection centers do not exist in the United States, unlike it other countries, such as France, which makes children below the age of three or four years old somewhat invisible to authorities, laments Frank. "They don't come to my clinic until they are already quite underweight.

"Recently I have been alarmed because we are getting more children who are so ill that they go to hospital rather than they come to the clinic first" a situation which, in 20 years of practising medicine, Frank had seen reverse.

Some children in the United States occasionally look like the malnourished children we see in some parts of Africa, however, welfare programs targeting society's poorest ensures that problem is generally avoided, the pediatricians say.

Paradoxically, malnutrition is not always due to lack of food -- rather to the quality of the food being consumed.

"People often ask me how many children go to bed hungry. The answer is the parents work very hard so they don't go to bed feeling hungry. The parents try to fill the baby up with french fries and soda pop," said Frank.

In some areas, green vegetables and fruit are impossible to buy -- even in a can, because there may be no supermarket. Moreover, such items are costly.

"What happens in America is -- what seems bizarre -- that some of the recommendations that we give to families to prevent underweight of children are the same as we give to prevent overweight," said Black. "We recommend families not to give their children junk food."

In some families, eating junk food will mean one child is obese while the other is underweight, said Black. "The first will eat junk food and nothing else, the second will eat junk food and everything else."

"In some areas, green vegetables and fruit are impossible to buy -- even in a can, because there may be no supermarket. Moreover, such items are costly" where are these places?? Alaska? I live in Wyoming, and parts are pretty desolate, but people can still get green vegetables and fruit-and of course, they could try growing them..

These "nincompoops" do not need the criminal prosecution. They need some basic compulsory training - what to buy, where to buy, how to cook or prepare, how to eat.

I do agree with you, but it is sad that they didn't learn this from their family while they were growing up, but with the breakup of the fmaily somebody has to fill that vacuum and you end up having society take care of what the family should have a long time ago.

Only in America can you become a rich man teaching others how to scam the taxpayers. Of course our out of control government has a bit to do with it.

http://www.mlesko.com/g2/bills.htm

Let Matthew Lesko be your guide to join the millions each year who get Free Money, Grants, Loans, Contracts and Free Assistance from the Federal and State Governments.
Everyone qualifies!

Government money programs aren't only for the very needy. Even those who make $35,000, $50,000, even $85,000 a year can qualify for many of these programs. And others programs have no income requirements at all. You can even be a millionaire and get free money from the government (like Donald Trump, Sam Donaldson and even George W. Bush and Dick Cheney did)!

It's Money You Never Have To Repay! Learn About:

Government Money That Goes Directly Into Your Pocket
Government Offices That Pay Your Bills Directly
Free Goods and Services From Professionals That will never send you a bill

Millions Of Qualified Taxpayers Are Missing Out!

140 Million People are eligible for money to pay for medications but only a fraction apply
58% of the people eligible to receive $800 in groceries don't apply
3 million people who are eligible to receive $6000 in spending money never apply
4 million kids who can get their health care paid for don't apply

There's no excuse for children being hungry in America.

Why not?

Over 70% of African-American children are born to single mothers. A healthy percentage of those mothers are "children" themselves.

Why are the rest of the citizenry morally...let alone legally obligated to ensure these "families" have enough to eat?

Two words. Personal responsibility.

It can't be too tough since there seems to be a flood of immigrants from the South still choosing to come here.

Liberalism and Socialism are diseases. Democrats are the carriers.

If I am foolish enough to fall asleep on the sofa, I usually wake up around 3:00 a.m. to find Matthew Lesko on tv in his question mark suit dancing all over the place.

I don't like him particularly, but he does make a good point...there are lots of programs out there with monetary assistance available if you get up off your backside and go after them.

I will only say that if something happened to your late mother then it was ignorance on her part, the doctors' part, and society's part.

To be fair to her mother, it could be that she was having babies during the period when the best "scientific" thought supported formulas and strict feeding schedules for babies. The slightest problem and mothers were discouraged from breastfeeding, and of course, having been told they were harming their babies, mothers yielded to the "experts".

The same thing happened to my mother. She breast fed me for a short time, gave up at her doctor's urging, and didn't even try with my brother.

Without the support from a close friend and my pediatrician assuring me that my baby was doing well, I probably would have given up in those first frustrating, painful weeks too.

I read all the way through and never saw the part about parental responsibility. Did I just miss that?

I work with alot of kids that have malnutrition problems and the parents are on Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc. In the past two years, I've seen that the biggest problem those kids have... are irresponsible, immature parents.

It never ceases to amaze me that the welfare Moms have the latest hairdo with expensive tinting processes and the high $$ manicures... but the kids half starve to death.

Our tax dollars at work!

****I just read a report on a study done in California that stated we are the "most overfed and under-nourished" people in the world.****

In a way we are since the majority of people live on fast food, junk food and overly processed nutrient deficient convenient foods. I have lost over 100 pounds since December simply by eliminating the above mentioned "foods" and eating regular whole foods. It does require knowing how to cook though.

That is probably so. Which confirms that situations like that come from ignorance-- doctor or mother ignorance.

It has nothing to do with love, just that women were duped for generations into beleive everything their MD said as coming from God Himself. And male doctors knew (and still know) little if nothing about breastfeeding, natural childbirth, natural baby care.

Thank God we are in an age where more information exists and there is no excuse for not breastfeeding, and getting professional, competent help when any difficulty arises.

I was taught to eat healthy, but the problem is that I not only eat healthy, but I eat junk on top of the healthy food. It's the junk, along with a lack of exercise, that puts on the pounds.

I'm working on both (eating and exercising) and I know how hard the struggle is. You're done very well. Congratulationks and best wishes for continued success!

I agree, the illegals are ripping us off, how come Americans don't know how?

One thing that immigrants often have that American poor do not, is community support from their national group. They share information and what little they have while Americans raised in an "every man is an island" culture, tend not to support eachother.

It has nothing to do with love, just that women were duped for generations into beleive everything their MD said as coming from God Himself.

***

Oh...that was my mother...if the doctor prescribed something and told her to stand on her head to take it, she would. And like I said, while the doctors she consulted bereated her for not being able to breastfeed, they really didn't help her or give her advice -- just criticism. Her instruction on the subject came from the hospital nurse, friends and family. That's what was available at that time in the small town where we lived.

In her day, there was strong encouragement to breastfeed...which is why, along with all the criticism, I think she felt so guilty when she could not do it. But I know what you mean about breastfeeding falling out of favor. I think it did for a time somewhere in the 70's around the time of women's lib. Then it came back again in the conservative 80's.

With all the confusion about breastfeeding being in today, and out tomorrow, no wonder some mothers did not or could not do it.

But I know what you mean about breastfeeding falling out of favor. I think it did for a time somewhere in the 70's around the time of women's lib. Then it came back again in the conservative 80's.

I don't think it had anything to do with woman's lib. It was a faddish belief that scientific was better than natural, and scientific schedules were better than the old fashioned "feed 'em when they're hungry" approach.

By the time my first child was born in 1974, attitudes were changing and breast feeding was back on the rise.

I was taught to eat right too. I even have a degree in home ec, I should have known better. However, the eating out and snacking wreaked havoc on my weight. We have snacked ourselves into an obesity epidemic. The best thing I did was to quit the foods with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats. That's just about everything in the middle isles of the store.

Young parents today haven't been taught proper nutrition and how to cook for the most part. They were raised on McDonald's, pizza, chicken nuggets, tv dinners and stuff like that. When you have preteens being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and morbidly obese something is terribly wrong with the picture.

Trust me, some believe that women who don't breastfeed their children are lazy (I guess that would include me)

Ha! What could be lazier than breastfeeding? No trips to the store for formula, no bottles to prepare, nothing to wash, unless you are among the unfortunate that have to return to work shortly after the birth of a baby. Then trying to continue feeding with breast milk becomes quite a chore.

I admit to falling out of the habit of cooking on weekends...something I did for a lot of years as a grownup...then started to get lazy about it. You're right -I found out the hard way that all the junk food and too much eating out does put on the pounds. I learned from my mother to make food in quantity -- usually focusing on such main dishes as the usual comfort food: meatloaf, roasts, stews and the like -- and then freezing them in individual servings. They are a godsend for days like today when I have to work...and they keep me from heading toward the nearest McDonalds. All I need once I have the basic roast or whatever is a baked potato and a salad and voila -- dinner!

My mother, for being largely "uneducated" (she didn't finish high school) was an avid reader. She had a lifelong thirst for knowledge and she was rather savvy. My parents were never wealthy and often we had lean times growing up, but Mom knew how to buy smart, cook smart and put nutritious food on the table, in good times and bad. You're right...we have multiple generations now who, with all the resources available, don't know how to do any of this...or don't want to.

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