Course: Caring for infants and children with acute malnutrition
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Introduction


Many children are underweight because they are short (stunted), or thin (wasted). UNICEF (2016) estimates that in developing countries 25% of children under 5 years of age are moderately or severely stunted (152 million) and 8.4% are moderately or severely wasted (51 million). Of newborns, about 15% are low birth weight.