US doctors advised to screen child patients for signs of hunger

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued unprecedented guidelines on how to
determine child’s food security and provide resources for struggling families

Mahita Gajanan in New York
Friday 23 October 2015 10.00 BST

Doctors should screen all their child patients for hunger, a national association of US pediatricians advised on Friday.

This is the first time the American Academy of Pediatrics has made such a recommendation, and the US secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack is expected to tout the new policy on Monday.

About 16 million children in the US live in households that struggle to put food on the table consistently, the AAP found in an examination of data from 2014. The US Department of Agriculture released data in September showing that the number of children getting enough food to stay healthy was at its highest since 2007. Numbers dipped drastically during the recession years, particularly in 2011, said Sarah Schwarzenberg, one of the policy statement’s lead authors.

But “it could be much higher”, Schwarzenberg said, referring to the number of children who receive an adequate amount of food.

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