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H Dimond

Publications and source records attributed to H Dimond.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Determinants of growth in the first 6 months of life among the urban poor in Sudan.

This paper presents part of a longitudinal study carried out in the three towns of Khartoum Province in the period December 1983 to April 1985. It was attempting to determine the duration of satisfactory breast-feeding in healthy breast-fed infants of mothers attending maternal and child health centres in the three towns; Khartoum, Khartoum-North and Omdurman. The main objective of the present paper is to compare samples from the three towns in terms of the factors affecting weight gain. Four hundred and thirty-nine infants were recruited at birth and home visited every 2 weeks. At each visit weight was measured and it was recorded whether any supplements had been given and whether the child had been ill. Length was measured every 4 weeks. There were significant differences between the samples from the three towns in attained weights and weight increments. Weight gains were lowest in the Khartoum North sample in the first 3 months, but from 3 to 6 months were highest, almost equalling the NCHS reference. In the Khartoum and Omdurman samples growth from 0 to 3 months exceeded the reference but from 3 to 6 months was less than the reference. Fifty per cent of infants were supplemented by 13 weeks in the Omdurman sample; the median time of supplementation in the other two samples was 17 weeks. Only in Khartoum did delaying supplementation seem to benefit growth. Infections were most common among the Omdurman sample.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Effects of infection on growth in Sudanese children.

A cohort of 439 infants from poor districts of Greater Khartoum were examined at intervals of 2 weeks from birth to 1 year. At each visit symptoms suggesting infection were recorded--diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and cough or cold. On average 30 per cent of children had episodes of diarrhoea and 40 per cent had episodes of cold or cough in each 4-week period, the incidence being somewhat lower in the first 2 months of life. The average duration of an episode was 5 d. The effect of illness on weight gain was calculated by regressing weight gain against number of days ill. Diarrhoea produced a deficit in weight gain of 32 g per day ill, and cough/cold a deficit of 16.4g per day ill. From these data the overall impact of illness on weight gain was calculated. In the average child between 12 and 24 weeks diarrhoea produced a reduction in growth of 160g, and cough/cold a reduction of 95g. In most periods the frequency of episodes of diarrhoea was not significantly greater in supplemented than in exclusively breast-fed children. In the first 3 months of life episodes of diarrhoea had little effect on weight gain, but thereafter an episode of diarrhoea in any 2-week period reduced the gain in that period to less than 50 per cent of that found in uninfected children. 'Faltering' was defined as a weight increment below -2 s.d. of the reference mean. Diarrhoea did not always lead to faltering, but it seems to have been an initiating factor in some 50 per cent of those children who did falter.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗
PubMed1987

Faltering in infant growth in Khartoum province, Sudan.

Four hundred babies were recruited at birth and visited at intervals of 2 weeks. At each visit weight, length and morbidity were recorded. Growth in weight and length began to fall below the international reference by 5 months. 'Faltering' was defined as a weight gain less than the reference -1 s.d. for two consecutive 2-week periods. Fifty per cent of children had begun to falter by 16 weeks. Initially almost all the children were exclusively breast-fed. The mothers were neither encouraged nor discouraged from introducing supplementary food; 50 per cent had done so by 16 weeks. There were only minor differences in attained weight, length, weight gain and length gain between supplemented and unsupplemented children. The results emphasize the wide variability in this population both in feeding patterns and in growth from period to period. Although the average outcome was satisfactory, this average conceals a minority whose growth was unacceptably low.

Body Height↗