Stunting, on the other hand, is a consequence of chronic under-nutrition arising from insufficient food intake and exposure to infections over a long period. Given the cumulative effect of these conditions, the longer they prevail the more likely a child is to be stunted. Stunting is a more widespread condition than wasting, and as many children seem to adapt to it and to function at or near normal levels, there is some debate about how severe stunting really is. In the long term, however, this condition has a number of serious consequences. For example, women who themselves were stunted during childhood are more likely to develop complications when they have their own babies and to give birth to low-birth-weight children.
For a long time it was the custom to assess the degree of