About a month ago, I examined a boy of 4 years old with the complaints of pallor, decrease attention, loss of interest, rough skin, decrease vision at night.

After taking through history including dietary history and meticulous physical examination, I got the clue of different micronutrient deficiency in the patient. Few lab tests helped me to confirm the diagnosis. My patient had deficiency of Iron and vitamin A; he was treated with drug, diet and found remarkable improvement within couple of weeks.

Hidden hunger is a form of under nutrition that occurs when intake and absorption of vitamins and minerals are too low to sustain good health and development.

All vitamins and micronutrients are required for maintaining good health in true sense, but we consider Iron, Vitamin A , Zinc and Iodine as more important.

Globally prevalence of Iron deficiency is in almost 1.6 billion, Vitamin A in 190 million, Zinc in 1.2 billion, Iodine in 1.8 billion children. Burden of these micronutrient deficiency is enormous (data from Unicef Global hunger index).

In Bangladesh, micronutrient deficiency especially Iron, vitamin A, Zinc and Iodine is quite remarkable. All these micronutrients are essential for better growth and development of the children, especially cognitive development.

To combat this situation, we need to develop awareness in the parents. Very simple measures like, exclusive breast feeding up to six month and there after along with breast milk vitamins and mineral rich complementary food should be given. Hygienically prepared vegetable khichuri, meat, fresh fruits may help a lot to prevent micronutrient deficiency.

Take care of your sweet kids.

The author is a Professor of Paediatrics at Community Based Medical College (CBMC), Mymensingh. E-mail: mmukkhan@gmail.com