Fasting among children particularly below 12 may cause growth-related problems

Rawalpindi

Medically, fasting among children cannot be recommended as studies have revealed that because of having smaller reserves in their body, children while fasting may face growth-related problems.

The paediatricians believe that fasting among children particularly below 12 years of age may affect their mental health along with physical growth. Children need small meals after small intervals and cannot afford to observe fast for over 15 hours so it should not be encouraged.

Frequent fasting in children below 12 years of age in the holy month of Ramazan may bring a number of complications related to both mental and physical health. Children while fasting frequently may suffer from dehydration and hypoglycemia (lowering of glucose in the blood) and it can affect their immunity making them more vulnerable to severe infections such as diarrhea and recurrent pneumonia, said Head of Paediatrics Department at Rawalpindi Medical College Professor Dr. Rai Muhammad Asghar while talking to ‘The News’.

He said the allied hospitals in town receive a number of cases of fasting children with severe dehydration and hypoglycemia every year in the month of Ramazan and it is so because majority of parents are unaware of the affects of fasting on health of their children.

He explained that a child of six years of age or above needs at least 1.5 to two liters of water in a day that he cannot take while fasting because of having small stomach. It is not possible for a child to take large quantity of food or fluids at one time, at ‘Sehr’, like adults, rather he needs small but frequent meals after every three to four hours. Parents must e aware of the fact that insufficient intake of food or fluid may affect growth of a fasting child, he said.

He said a percentage of food that a child consumes is utilized by the body for growth while a portion of it is needed for activities and hence a child requires more importantly frequent intakes unlike adults. He said the process of metabolism is faster in children than in adults.

He said it is a must for a child to have normal metabolic level otherwise the child’s immunity may get weakened and compromised making him more vulnerable to serious infections. The perfect quintessence of it is that malnourished children are more prone to have infections, said Dr. Rai.

He added that parents must keep in mind that most of the children in Pakistan are already malnourished and they may face severe complications in result of fasting.

It has become a common practice in our society that children below 10 years of age do fast off and on following their passion and parents also encourage them. Dr. Rai like many other health experts say that the practice should be discouraged, as Islamic fasting becomes an obligation on a Muslim when he or she reaches on adulthood and there is no need of putting health of a child at stake due to fasting.

It is important that after the onset of summer season, the incidence of gastrointestinal infections is already on the rise among children and a greater number of child patients with water and food-borne infections are reaching the allied hospitals along with private healthcare facilities in town.

Dr. Rai said that in Ramazan, parents should give only boiled water for drinking to their children and should avoid consumption of foodstuff on sale in unhygienic conditions in most of the markets of town.

He added that parents should assure washing of children’s hands before eating meal and after going to toilet. He said that in most of the reported cases, the fasting children below eight years of age suffer mostly from severe dehydration or hypoglycemia.

Health experts say that in certain cases, the dehydration caused by fasting in children may not be severe apparently but it may be more damaging because the child below 12 or 13 years of age while fasting in the existing extreme hot weather conditions may suffer from severe deficiency of essential minerals in the body.