Shuttered nurseries, sick parents and empty plates all harm children under five years old
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskMother-and-baby groups are an important defence against sickness and malnutrition in this corner of Sierra Leone. Illiteracy makes it difficult to share messages in other ways. But for a year after covid-19 arrived in Sierra Leone, such gatherings could not happen. Mohamed Bangura, a health worker, says parents avoided bringing small children to hospitals. Many went unvaccinated; some underfed kids got no food aid.
The pandemic can hurt babies before they are born. Small children are much less likely than adults to get very ill if they catch covid. But pregnant women are a bit more likely than average to get severe symptoms, which increases the risk that their children will be born prematurely or have a low birthweight. The pandemic also caused many expectant mothers to undergo extreme stress, which studies show can affect unborn children.
Children starved of stimulation at home also had fewer chances to find it outside. In 2020 early-childhood education “went literally to zero” in many parts of the world, says Jaime Saavedra of the World Bank. Virtual schooling was hardly an option for tiny tots. In developing countries pre-schools tended to stay closed longer than grade schools because of safety worries.
A study published in October weighed the findings of eight early experiments, carried out in America, Canada, China and Kuwait. It concludes that in most regards babies born or raised in the first year of the pandemic are doing no worse than infants before them. But they were more likely to score poorly on tests that measure early communication skills.
In Brazil, the share of people who cannot consistently get enough food has risen from 9% in 2020 to 16% this year, reckons Rede, says she recently watched in alarm as a pregnant woman filled a shopping basket with instant noodles. The global nutrition situation is “continuing to deteriorate”, says Yvonne Forsen, who leads the World Food Programme office in Sierra Leone. Projects such as the mother-and-baby groups, which theis supporting, do good.
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