More than 15 million US children are going hungry

For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended that paediatricians screen all children for food insecurity, as data shows that more than 15 million US children are living in households struggling with hunger.

In a policy statement titled ‘Promoting Food Security for all Children’, which identifies short- and long-term adverse health impacts of food insecurity, the AAP has also recommended that paediatricians become familiar with and refer families to needed community resources, and to advocate for federal and local policies that support access to adequate, nutritious food.

USDA data on food security shows that the number of children regularly getting enough food to stay healthy and active in 2014 was at its highest since 2007, illustrating the effectiveness and importance of government nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), nearly half of whose recipients are children.

Health problems linked to hunger described in the AAP policy statement include:

• Children get sick more often, recover more slowly from illness, have poorer overall health and are hospitalised more frequently.
• Children and adolescents are more likely to be iron deficient, and pre-adolescent boys dealing with hunger issues have lower bone density. Early childhood malnutrition is tied to diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life.
• Lack of adequate healthy food can impair a child’s ability to concentrate and perform well in school and is linked to higher levels of behavioural and emotional problems from preschool through to adolescence.

For many families, seemingly small changes to income, expenses or access to federal or state assistance programs can instantly reduce the ability to buy enough nutritious food, according to the AAP policy statement, which quoted statistics indicating that more than 30% of families who reported food insecurity said they had to choose between paying for food or paying for medicine or medical care.

“We are in the midst of a nutritional crisis in our country, and when you’re in a crisis, you can’t keep doing what you’ve always done,” said AAP President Sandra Hassink, MD, FAAP.