Stunting, overweight and obesity in the very young: two sides of the coin

Nutrition, in general, is an important prerequisite to both individual and national development. More specifically, nutrition early in life is considered to be an important determinant of health and disease patterns in adulthood. As such, nutrition during the first 1 000 days right from the start of pregnancy up to the child's second birthday is considered critical to the child's development and health in adulthood. Various national surveys have shown that child undernutrition, especially stunting (chronic undernutrition), has remained unacceptably high in South Africa. Although other forms of child undernutrition occur less frequently, they are of equal importance. The South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1) provided more recent information on the prevalence of malnutrition, including undernutrition and overnutrition, overweight and obesity.