Counseling crucial to avoid malnutrition Paper Edition | Page: 4
Despite its initial successes, Indonesia continues to struggle
with malnutrition in children under the age of five, partly due
to a lack of appropriate nutrition counseling in the country.
Although it is seen as a key to promoting a healthy diet,
nutritional counseling and advice receives minimal attention
compared to other activities at integrated health posts
(Posyandu). “In most cases, nutrition counseling carried out in
the community-based health posts doesn’t work well, although
experts have long considered it as the most crucial stage of
nutrition monitoring activities for children,” said Candra
Wijaya, the health team leader at World Vision Indonesia (WVI)
who also leads the organization’s nutrition counseling program
for kids, known as PMBA. Without proper counseling, growth
monitoring efforts were unlikely to be sufficient in helping
improve the nutritional status of children under the age of
five, he said. Under the PMBA program, pregn