A team studied the gut health of malnourished children in Bangladesh.

 

Writing in the journal Nature they said the bacterial³ make-up was not fully⁴ restored to normal after food supplements were given.

 

They say the finding might explain why children often fail to grow normally even after treatment.

 

The World Health Organization estimates severe acute malnutrition affects about 20 million children worldwide.

 

Moderate acute malnutrition, a less serious form of the disease, is more prevalent in South Central Asia, where it affects 30 million children. 

 

In Bangladesh, more than 40% of children under five are affected⁵ by stunted⁶ growth.

 

 

"Friendly" gut microbes play a crucial role in extracting and using nutrients⁷ in food.

 

It has been suggested that malnutrition damages this process.

 

Childhood malnutrition can lead to long-term problems such as stunted growth（生长萎缩）, cognitive⁸ problems and weakened immune systems.

 

In this study, a team at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, assessed 64 malnourished children aged⁹ from six to 20 months.

 

Malnourished children were either given Plumpy'Nut, an enriched peanut-based food that is the mainstay（支柱） treatment for severe malnutrition worldwide, or Khichuri-Halwa, which is produced in Bangladesh and has rice and lentils（扁豆） as its main ingredients. 

 

Both types of food include milk powder and micronutrients, such as iron. 

 

The researchers took faecal samples from the children before they were given the foods and every three days while they were being treated, which usually lasted for around two weeks, stopping when they reached a certain weight.

 

Samples were then taken every month for four months.

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