Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example: Underweight Child

Assessment enables the practitioner to identify all significant health concerns. Key indicators such as the patient`s weight guide proper assessment of the patient and enable holistic treatment. Patients with overweight or underweight should be observed keenly and assigned appropriate care. The paper focuses on a 2-year-old underweight female and evaluates the health issue and risk factors linked with the malnourished child presented, identifying other additional information required to assess the patient`s health accurately. Furthermore, the paper will also focus on how the child`s health information might be obtained reflectively. Finally, the report will include questions that healthcare providers might ask the child’s parents to extract relevant information concerning the child`s health and infer techniques to educate the parents to be pre-emptive in the child`s health.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Case Study: Health Issues and Risks

The patient is a 2-year-old underweight female presented with her underweight parents who live with their geriatric grandparents. The health issue identified in the patient is underweight since her body mass index (BMI) is below the 5^th percentile for other toddlers in a similar age group (Moradi et al. 2019). Malnutrition is a critical issue among children, as approximately 33% of children are affected by malnutrition globally (Flynn et al., 2021). Malnutrition increases the risks for critical health issues such as stunting, wasting, and being underweight in children.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Stunting is a health issue where a child`s height exceeds two standard deviations below the World Health Organization growth chart average for a specific age group (Chowdhury et al., 2021). Several factors cause stunting, for example, undernourishment, prenatal impediments, contagious processes, micronutrient deficits, socioeconomic status, and conservational factors. Besides, wasting is when a child exhibits low body weight for height. Wasting is mainly a result of factors such as prolonged vomiting or a child’s inability to eat appropriately during an illness. Both stunting and wasting would expose a child to risks of lacking the nutrients required for brain and body growth (Flynn et al. 2021). Globally, malnutrition is responsible for over 12 million deaths in toddlers under five (Moradi et al., 2019). Issues with undernourishment are linked to poor diet, poor sanitation, deprived health, and insufficient knowledge.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Other Information Needed

Enough information must be gathered to diagnose the presented 2-year-old female as underweight and begin treating her for undernourishment. The patient needs a precise height. Therefore, BMI would measure the patient`s total body fat and achieve an idea of nutrition status, though BMI would not be the final source of information needed. The BMI of the child would be arrived at by obtaining her height and weight. Then, the BMI would be plotted on a growth chart for that particular gender and age group. Children at birth to 24 months will be weighed in grams, a length is obtained, and the World Health Organization growth curve is used in tracking the BMI (Moradi et al., 2019). Care providers use the CDC growth curve when a child attains two years. The CDC growth curve is gender explicit and utilizes height instead of length. After obtaining the presented patient`s weight, I will plot the information on her growth chart and monitor her progress.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Numerous factors, however, are to be considered. First, I the patient`s weight and height trending up considering her last visit? Was the patient a premature infant? How is her appearance? Does she appear well-nourished and hydrated or reedy and weak? Does she have a history of causal health issues causing her to be smaller? How are the patient`s vibrant signs?(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Another issue to consider in this patient is whether she experiences absorption issues, for example, irritable bowel. Does the patient follow any particular diet? These are the prominent factors in the patient`s age group resulting in being underweight. Iron is one of the essential micronutrients that are lacking in a malnourished child. Its level could be tested in the blood from venous samples, and the trend is evaluated in the presented patient (Owino et al., 2019).(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Family Questions and Involvement

Providers need to remember that when it comes to providing care for a pediatric patient family has an active role in receiving information and designing care for their patient. Therefore, it would be essential to give the patient`s parents critical information about why their child is underweight and establish ways to restore her usual health. Moreover, a provider should develop a profitable relationship with the parents (Flynn et al., 2021). Providers should talk about the risks of malnourishment in a patient, such as brain damage, stunting, or even death; however, it is essential to speak to the parents in a manner that they can better understand and not instill fear (Chowdhury et al., 2021). Avoiding anything that would make them portray you as egocentric is also crucial.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Specific questions for parents would be:

Can you please share with me about your pregnancy and the delivery of your daughter? Were there any complications for you or her? Did you have any infections when you were pregnant or during delivery? Can you tell me about your daughter`s health since birth? How many occasions has she had diarrhea or vomit? Is your daughter`s immunization up to date? Does she sometimes act like she is experiencing abnormal pain? Can you tell me about the family’s eating habits at home? Do you have any dietary restrictions? Do you ever feel hungry even after a meal?(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

After the above questions and establishing a dependable relationship, the child`s parent and I can begin structuring a strategy of care to assist the child in gaining average weight. Education would be the first step in developing a care plan. Providers should take their time and educate the parents on how they would understand what they should add to the child`s diet to help her gain weight. For example, adding food such as cheese to the child`s diet and making soup with milk instead of water, the addition of nuts and butter to the patient`s diet would be essential (Alqaoud & Al-Tairar, 2022). I strongly suspect that the presented patient`s weight is linked to insufficient food in the house, following that every individual in the place is underweight. However, I would direct them on setting up resources for WIC and SNAP benefits if insufficient food is the main issue causing the patient to be malnourished.  (Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Conclusion

There are several issues to deliberate on in the case study presented. Underweight pediatric patients are vulnerable to developmental delays, chronic complications, stunting, and death. Therefore, it is imperative to identify such problems before getting irreversible and offer the best nutrients to the patients. Additionally, establishing a positive environment with patients and their families would be the best care method for pediatric patients. Patients are expected to recover after providing quality care, government food assistance, and follow-ups.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

References

Alqaoud, N., & Al-Taiar, A. (2022). Trends of stunting, underweight and overweight among children aged < 5 years in Kuwait: Findings from Kuwait nutritional surveillance system (2007–2019). Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 28(6), 407-417.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example) https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.22.043

Chowdhury, M., Khan, H., & Mondal, M. (2021). Differences in the socio-demographic determinants of undernutrition in children aged <5 years in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh measured by the composite index of anthropometric failure. Public Health, 198, 37-43(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.06.027

Flynn, J., Alkaff, F. F., Sukmajaya, W. P., & Salamah, S. (2021). Comparison of WHO growth standard and national Indonesian growth reference in determining prevalence and determinants of stunting and underweight in children under five: A cross-sectional study from Musi sub-district. F1000Research, 9, 324. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.23156.4

Moradi, S., Mirzababaei, A., Mohammadi, H., Moosavian, S. P., Arab, A., Jannat, B., & Mirzaei, K. (2019). Food insecurity and the risk of undernutrition complications among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition, 62, 52-60.(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2018.11.029

Owino, V. O., Murphy‐Alford, A. J., Kerac, M., Bahwere, P., Friis, H., Berkley, J. A., & Jackson, A. A. (2019). Measuring growth and medium‐ and longer‐term outcomes in malnourished children. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 15(3)(Child Health Case Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example). https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12790