This past week we were able to help start up 2 malnutrition programs in different towns in Cap Haitian. Working alongside the Haitian staff is by far one of the best ways to ensure that our projects are sustainable when we are not here! The first area we visited on Monday was a place called Jolitrou. A team had visited and ran a clinic there in June and saw the immense need as there were many malnourished children. Our goal for this community is to treat 50 children by June. We use the product called Plumpy Nut as you learned about in a previous post. We ended up seeing around 50 children on Monday and admitted 11 into our program. I will give you a little background on how we know whether or not the child needs to be admitted into the program and how the program works.

First off you take their weight and height, then compare it to a chart that has 3 area’s, green, yellow and red. If their weight falls in the green, then they are not malnourished. If it falls between the yellow and the green then they are underweight. If it falls in the yellow or below they are moderately malnourished and if their weight is in the red they are severely malnourished. We then take their arm circumference which can also give us vital information on their state of malnutrition. They then sit down and get their picture taken and get asked an admission questionnaire. This questionnaire asks questions like what do you eat, has any of your children died, do you drink treated water, etc. This helps us understand better ways to help the people in the community and the reasons why their child may be malnourished. The nurses then educate the family about topics including handwashing, nutrition, etc. They are then give so many sachets of plumpy nut which is decided based on their weight. They may have to eat 2-4 of the sachets a day. Also throughout the program they are given a dose of albendazole (treatment for worms), chlorox for treating their water and amoxicillin (antibiotic). The child has to be between the ages of 6-59 months to be eligible for the program.

The child is normally in the program between 8-12 weeks depending on the severity. The goal is that they gain weight and are in the green category for their weight-height ratio. Another goal is that they understand the causes of malnutrition and ways to prevent it from happening again!