Hunger Is Ravaging the Bodies of Syrian Children, Stunting Their Growth

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Samah Al-Ibrahim is unable to provide milk for her child. Babies born to internally displaced families in the camps in the northern countryside of Idlib are desperate for a regular supply of food and milk supplements for their children. Credit: Sonia al-Ali/IPSby Sonia Al Ali (idlib, syria)Wednesday, October 23, 2024Inter Press Service

IDLIB, Syria, Oct 23 (IPS) - Children in northern Syria are suffering from hunger, illness, and malnutrition as a result of poverty, poor living conditions for most families, and the collapse of purchasing power amid the soaring prices of all essential food commodities. Displacement and a lack of job opportunities make this worse.

Nour al-Hammoud, a 5-year-old girl whose family was displaced from Maarat al-Numan, south of Idlib, to a makeshift camp in the northern countryside of Idlib, near the Syrian-Turkish border, suffers from acute malnutrition. She is extremely thin.

"My daughter's immunity is very weak; she suffers from stunted growth and constant illness. We cannot provide her with the nutrients she needs due to our poverty. My husband is unemployed because of a war injury, and humanitarian aid in this camp is almost nonexistent," her mother, who did not want to be named, says.

The mother indicates that she took her daughter to a pediatrician at a health center more than 5 km from the camp, and the doctor confirmed that the girl was suffering from malnutrition and prescribed medication and supplements, but these haven't yet made a difference. The mother confirmed that her daughter's condition is deteriorating day by day, and she is helpless to do anything for her.

Samah al-Ibrahim, 33, from the city of Idlib, northern Syria, is also unable to afford formula milk for her 9-month-old baby, which has affected his growth and health. She says, "My husband works in construction all day for USD 3. We can barely afford our basic necessities, so we can't buy milk on many days, especially since I can't breastfeed due to malnutrition myself."

Al-Ibrahim confirms that she relies on cooking starch with sugar or boiling rice to feed her son, as milk is not available daily.

As for Sanaa al-Barakat, 35, she has been living in a state of severe anxiety after discovering that her 2-year-old daughter, Rim, is suffering from acute malnutrition and stunted growth and it is critical she gets care immediately.

"The doctor diagnosed her with severe malnutrition, which caused brain atrophy and delayed the acquisition of motor skills. She also suffers from difficulty speaking as well as lethargy and refuses to play like other children. Additionally, she is introverted," al-Barakat.

She said her daughter Rim is not the only one suffering from malnutrition, but all of her four children are as well, because she finds it very difficult to provide her children with the necessary food supplies. She often only manages to feed them one meal a day.

Dr. Nour Al-Abbas (39), a pediatrician from Sarmada, north of Idlib, speaks about malnutrition, saying, "It is a serious health condition where children suffer from a deficiency in the essential nutrients their bodies need, causing them symptoms and signs that vary in severity and danger."

She confirms that a quarter of children in Idlib suffer from malnutrition due to not getting enough nutritious food due to a lack of and of dietary diversity, which makes them susceptible to disease and weakens their immune systems."

The doctor explains that the number of children she receives at the health center where she works is increasing. Al-Abbas says the mothers are also often suffering from malnutrition. The conditions the families live in are a result of poverty as a result of displacement due to war, the large number of children in one family, and the inability of mothers to breastfeed.

The spread of infectious diseases among children and reliance on contaminated and unclean drinking water exacerbate the situation. Often the mothers continue attempting to cope without consulting a doctor and when they do finally seek health, the children's condition is poor.

Al-Abbas points out that the groups most at risk of malnutrition are children after the breastfeeding period, i.e., from the age of 6 months to 6 years. However, some mothers are reluctant to breastfeed their children for several reasons, the most important of which is the mother's suffering from malnutrition as well.

"Malnutrition has different symptoms, the most important of which are severe weakness and feeling constantly tired, in addition to the child not gaining weight and height with pale skin and yellowing, or the appearance of edema or continuous inflammatory conditions such as dermatitis or peeling around the lips or abdominal distension (bloating)," Al-Abbas says.

The doctor called for additional support from charities and NGOs in an effort to provide food and medicine through field visits to camps.

According to UNICEF estimates, 9 out of 10 children in Syria do not consume minimally acceptable diets, leading to stunting and wasting. As many as 506,530 children under the age of five in Idlib, Syria, and northern rural Aleppo urgently need treatment for acute malnutrition, and nearly 108,000 children suffer from severe wasting. Disease prevalence, a lack of food, and inadequate sanitation services all make the situation worse.

In addition, over 609,900 children under the age of five in Syria suffer from stunting, according to UNICEF estimates. Stunting results from chronic malnutrition and causes irreversible physical and cognitive damage in children. This impacts their ability to learn and their productivity in adulthood.

According to the "Syria Response Coordinators" team, which specializes in statistics in northwestern Syria, the percentage of families below the poverty line is 91.18 percent, while the percentage of families below the hunger line has reached 41.05 percent. All families residing in the region's widespread camps have been classified as entirely below the poverty line.

Poverty, displacement, and inflation have increased the prevalence of malnutrition among Syrian children, stunting their growth due to the lack of sufficient essential nutrients for their bodies to grow, negatively impacting them and depriving them of their most basic rights.