Fasting by children may affect mental and physical growth

Rawalpindi

Children who fast regularly are vulnerable to a number of mental and physical health related problems and the practice of regular fasting among children below 10 or 11 years of age may affect both their mental and physical growth.

It has been observed by a number of health experts that regular fasting in children particularly below 11 years of age for a month in Ramazan in extremely hot weather conditions may affect their immunity making them vulnerable to severe infections.

In the existing weather conditions, 16-hour long fast on regular basis for a month should not be encouraged in children who are not able to fast as it may have both short and long term impact on their health.

Frequent fasting in children can cause dehydration and hypoglycemia (lowering of glucose in the blood) and also can affect immunity making them more vulnerable to severe infections including diarrhoea and recurrent pneumonia.

Head of Paediatrics Department at Rawalpindi Medical University Professor Dr. Rai Muhammad Asghar expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday.

It is important that after the setting in of existing hot weather conditions, the allied hospitals along with private healthcare facilities in town have been receiving significant influx of child patients with gastrointestinal diseases including diarrhoea.

According to Professor Rai, in most of the reported cases, the fasting children between six and 11 years of age suffer from dehydration or hypoglycemia. Six years to 11 years old child needs at least 1.5 to two liters of water in a day that he cannot take if fast because of having small stomach, he said.

With smaller stomach, it is not possible for a child to take large quantity of food or fluids at one time, at ‘Sehar’, like adults, instead he needs small but frequent meals after every three to four hours, said Professor Rai.

He added that insufficient intake of food or fluid might affect growth of a fasting child. 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 explained.

In children, the process of metabolism is faster than adults and hence they need frequent smaller meals for normal metabolic level otherwise their immunity may get weakened, said Professor Rai. Giving example, he explained that malnourished children are more prone to have all sorts of infections.

It is important that in our society, it has become a common practice that children below 10 or 11 years of age do fast off and on and sometimes on regular basis following their passion and majority of parents encourage them without assessing whether they are able to do so or not.

Majority of health experts say that the practice should be discouraged, as Islamic fasting becomes an obligation on a Muslim when he or she reaches puberty and there is no need of putting health of a child at stake due to fasting.

Professor Rai said that there is already a significant increase in child patients with diarrhoea and other seasonal infections mainly because of consumption of unhygienic foodstuff and contaminated drinking water.

In Ramazan, parents should give only boiled water for drinking to their children and should avoid consumption of foodstuff on sale in unhygienic conditions. Parents should ensure washing of children’s hands before eating meal and after going to toilet. In most of the reported cases, the fasting children below nine or 10 years of age suffer mostly from severe dehydration or hypoglycemia, he said.

He, however, said that observation of a single fast by a child and that too above nine years of age could be managed for the sake of satisfaction of the child and his or her parents but that too needs extra care.

The dehydration caused by fasting in children might not be severe apparently but parents must keep in mind that most of the children in Pakistan are already malnourished and they might face severe complications in result of fasting. In the existing weather conditions, fasting in children generally below 10 years of age may cause severe deficiency of essential minerals, said Professor Rai.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/211065-Fasting-by-children-may-affect-mental-and-physical-growth