More kids hungry, too thin in MA, elsewhere

Doctors at Boston Medical Center are reporting that the numbers of too thin children ages 3 and under seen  in their emergency room have jumped from 12% in 2007 to 18% in 2010, says today's Boston Globe.. 

Pediatricians at hospitals in four other cities - Baltimore; Little Rock, Ark.; Minneapolis; and Philadelphia - also reported increases in the ranks of malnourished, hungry youngsters in their emergency rooms since 2008. But Boston’s increases were more dramatic, said Sandel, a lead investigator with Children’s HealthWatch, a network of researchers who track children’s health. Researchers said higher housing and heating costs in Massachusetts probably exacerbated the state’s surge.

BMC has also seen a 58 percent increase, from 24 in 2005 to 38 in 2010, in the number of severely underweight babies under the age of 1 who were referred by family physicians to its Grow Clinic, where doctors provide intensive nutritional, medical, and other services to boost babies’ growth. Such malnourishment is similar to what is more typically seen in developing countries, Sandel said.

 Frankly, I can't even imagine where we're headed in this country. 

Photo from Ivan Cabrera's photostream at Flickr.