Poor eating behind more kids’ ills

Number of New Zealand children needing hospital treatment for inadequate nutrition doubles in past decade

Poor nutrition is putting twice as many children in hospital compared with 10 years ago, as food prices continue to bite into household incomes. Child hospitalisation data shows about 120 children a year now have overnight stays due to nutritional deficiencies and anaemia, compared with an average 60 a decade ago.

Doctors say poor nutrition is also a factor in a significant proportion of the rest of the 40,000 annual child hospitalisations linked to poverty — and that vitamin deficiencies are more common in New Zealand compared with similar countries.

“Housing, stress and nutrition — it’s all tied together,” said paediatrician Dr Nikki Turner, from the Child Poverty Action Group.

“If you want to eat nutritiously on a low income it’s difficult, and that means you’re more likely to get sick and stay sick for longer.”

The new health data comes as food prices keep rising, with the consumer price index last week indicating food costs were up 2.3 per cent on a year ago. At the same time, income in the poorest third of households has remained flat since 1982.

Statistics New Zealand information released to the Herald shows that means families on the lowest incomes (under $35,000) now spend 60 per cent of their income on food, compared with 48 per cent in 2007.

More than half of that goes on fruit and vegetables, data shows. Among middle-income families, 22 per cent of income goes on food, with one fifth of that on fruit and vegetables.

Australian research has suggested “food stress” is believed to be experienced when more than 30 per cent Lowest income of income is spent on groceries. In practice, “food stress” means increasing reliance on food banks, charities, cheap “fillers” like white bread and noodles, or simply going without.

Dr Cameron Grant, the head of paediatrics at the University of Auckland, said although it was rare for children to be hospitalised for severe nutritional issues in New Zealand, malnutrition was a factor in a significant proportion of illnesses.

“A third of children hospitalised at Starship have iron deficiency, for example. A lack of vitamin D is also very common. That increases the risk of respiratory illnesses.”

New Zealand rates of iron deficiency are twice as high as Europe, Britain and Australia, he said, and Vitamin D deficiency was higher than in the United States, because our food lacked nutrients. But Kiwi diets were also energy rich, meaning children could be obese as well as undernourished — a situation that was not improving.

Child Poverty Action Group’s Turner said contrary to popular opinion, it wasn’t an issue of poor budgeting causing the problem.

According to household income data, low-income families spent about the same on cigarettes and alcohol as middle-income earners, for example. “Low-income families are not wasting money any more than anyone else, but it just doesn’t stretch far enough,” she said.

The University of Otago 2016 Food Survey estimates the basic weekly food cost for a man is $64 per week. For a woman it’s $55, and a 5-yearold is $40.

Research at the Auckland City Mission found families coming for food parcels have an average $24 per person each week for all groceries. That’s about $3.50 a day.

However, Massey University PhD candidate Rebekah Graham, who researches food insecurity, said some people had even less — such as one woman who had only $25 a week for herself and two children.

The food she bought — tinned fruit, bacon-and-egg pies, noodles — was barely enough to meet the family’s food requirements. Despite that, the woman still bought a cake as a gift for a friend suffering a bereavement.

Graham’s research found families often had to make terrible choices to survive. One woman, surviving on $1 loaves of white bread, was unable to produce enough milk to feed her baby. Others put off urgent dental work. She also heard of people taking sleeping pills on a Friday so they could sleep through the weekend and not have to pay for food.

The Ministry of Health’s principal nutrition adviser, Elizabeth Aitken, said it last did a national children’s nutrition survey in 2002, and did not have more recent data on quantified nutrient intakes for children.

It said diet was just one of a range of causes of anaemia and nutritional deficiencies, but it knew obesity was increasing from poor-quality diets.

Aitken said it had a range of programmes to help parents with advice on nutrition and development.