Fasting can be harmful to children

Rawalpindi
Fasting among children, particularly below 13 years of age, in severe heat spells may put their lives at stake causing severe dehydration.
Fasting for over 16 hours in the holy month of Ramazan may also affect their mental and physical growth and lower immunity level in their bodies due to effects on their nutrition. In the existing weather conditions, a child below 13 years of age while fasting may face severe deficiency of essential minerals in the body.
Fasting among children should not be encouraged unnecessarily as it becomes an obligation on a Muslim when he or she reaches adulthood and it is not in accordance with the teachings of Islam to put health of a child at stake due to fasting, said Head of Paediatrics Department at Rawalpindi Medical College and Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Rai Asghar while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.
He said that deficiency of certain salts in the body of a child can cause serious health threats while affecting mental and physical growth badly.
Fasting in children in the existing weather conditions can cause severe dehydration along with hypoglycaemia (lowering of glucose in blood). It can also affect their immunity level making them more vulnerable to severe infections including diarrhoea, typhoid and hepatitis A that has already hit child population in the district badly, he said.
It is important that the allied hospitals along with private healthcare facilities in town have already been receiving a huge influx of child patients with gastrointestinal diseases including diarrhoea.
Dr. Rai said a child has smaller reserves in his body and cannot afford to be without food or water for 16 or more hours so fasting among children especially below 12 or 13 years of age should be discouraged to avoid complications.
A child cannot take large quantity of food or fluids at one time, at the time of ‘Sehr’ like adults and he or she needs smaller meals more frequently after every three to four hours, which is not possible while fasting, he said.
A percentage of food that a child consumes is utilised 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 explained.
He added the process of metabolism is faster in children than in adults and if its level gets abnormal in a child, it would weaken immunity. He explained that in moderate climate, a child of six years of age and above needs at least 1.5 to two litres of water in a day that he cannot take while fasting.
It is important that it is a common practice in our society that children below 12 years of age do fast off and on following their passion and majority of parents appreciate them for the deed. “Parents should not allow children to fast when it is not an obligation on them,” said Dr. Rai while responding to a query.
He said in many cases, dehydration caused by fasting in children may not be severe apparently but in malnourished children, it may cause severe complications and even life-threatening situation.