Stunted growth is a reduced growth rate in human development. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition in early childhood, including malnutrition during fetal development brought on by the malnourished mother. Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. Child article read through the various talk pages for the debate -- it's been put on and removed twice In developing countries, stunted growth is a common problem affecting a large percentage of children. Developing countries are countries that haven't reached Western-style standards of democratic government free market economy industrialization social programs and human rights guaranties Once established, stunting and its effects typically become permanent. Stunted children may never regain the height lost as a result of stunting, and most children will never gain the corresponding body weight. It also leads to premature death later in life because vital organs never fully developed during childhood.
Growth stunting is defined by comparing measurements of children's heights to the NCHS growth reference population: children who fall below the fifth percentile of the reference population in height for age are defined as stunted, regardless of the reason. As an indicator of nutritional status, comparison of children's measurements with growth reference curves may be used differently for populations of children than for individual children. The fact that an individual child falls below the fifth percentile for height for age on a growth reference curve may reflect normal variation in growth within a population: the individual child may be short simply because both his parents carried genes for shortness and not because of inadequate nutrition. History See also History of genetics The existence of genes was first suggested by Gregor Mendel (1822-1884 who in the 1860s studied inheritance However, if substantially more than 5% of an identified child population have height for age that is less than the fifth percentile on the reference curve, then the population is said to have a higher-than-expected prevalence of stunting, and inadequate nutrition is generally the first cause considered.