Early protein calorie malnutrition in slum areas of Bangkok municipality 1970-71

Abstract

The prevalence of protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) in preschool children living in 4 slum areas of Bangkok Municipality, as revealed in the study reported here, is very high. What is even more alarming is the fact that the study revealed a high prevalence of severe PCM under the age of 6 mth, that period of life when the brain is growing most rapidly. This is attributed to failure to breast feed these infants, or early weaning, and inadequate artificial feeding to replace the breast milk. In contrast with this Thai village infants, almost all of whom are adequately breast fed, are rarely found to have severe PCM under 6 mth of age.