Reducing Stunting, Toddlers Should Not Eat More Mashed Banana and Rice

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Illustration by Feri Fenoria

UNAIR NEWS – Stunting to toddlers are caused by a lack of nutrition for a long period of time. It causes the child to be shorter than the child in normal conditions.

Other than the need to increase the amount of nutritional intake to prevent stunting, Trias Mahmudiono S.KM., MPH (Nutr.), GCAS, Ph.D explained that food diversity can also reduce the risk of stunting. However, research found that food diversity for infants is still low.

“Based on the results of the study, it is known that food diversity for toddlers is still lacking. There is a problem with the distribution of food to households, “said the nutrition lecturer known as Trias.

For families who can buy their own food, the problem of food distribution lies in the imbalance of food diversity for toddlers and parents. Toddlers tend to get low-protein foods such as meatball soup and mashed banana and rice.

This condition is inversely proportional to adults in families whose food is so diverse. In fact, toddlers have not been able to buy their own food and depend on the family to be able to meet their nutritional needs.

“To prevent stunting, children’s nutritional intake needs to be supported by providing high-protein foods such as eggs, fish and chicken liver,” he continued.

For the poor families, the state has a role to meet the nutritional needs of these children. However, the aid program in the form of money is not recommended to meet the nutritional needs of toddlers in poor families.

Trias suggested that the aid program in the form of providing food products that can only be eaten by toddlers, such as meat porridge, bean porridge, carrot porridge or other types of food that are suitable for toddlers and support the growth and development.

The study involved 736 respondents with children under five in their homes. It was motivated by the researchers’ concern on the problem of stunting which is quite high in Indonesia.

Moreover, in 2025 the commitment of sustainable development goals (SGDs) targets the number of stunting events to be in the range of 18 to 20. While in 2018, the number of stunting events in Indonesia is still at 30.7.

“So we want to learn anything that can accelerate the decline in stunting problems. And one of them is from the community’s dietary habits which still need to be increased in diversity, ” stated Trias.

Author: Galuh Mega Kurnia

Editor : Khefti Al Mawalia

Reference :  Mahmudiono, T., Sumarmi, S. & Rosenkranz, R. R., 2017. Household dietary diversity and child stunting in East Java, Indonesia. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, 26(2), pp. 317-325.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319162304_Household_dietary_diversity_and_child_stunting_in_East_Java_Indonesia

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