Preparing for the next round: convalescent care after acute infection

Infections pose a nutritional stress on the growing child. No therapeutic goal is as important as the rapid recovery of preillness weight after acute infections. Successful convalescence, with supernormal growth rates, can be achieved with relatively brief periods of intensive refeeding, offsetting any tendency toward reduced immune defenses or other nutritionally determined susceptibilities to further infection. Since the mother is the only person who can effectively manage convalescent care, she must be given specific tasks with measurable targets in order to reliably oversee the child's rehabilitation. Not generally considered in the realm of preventive medicine, effective home-based convalencent care is the first crucial step in preventing the next round of illness. An approach to the widespread mobilization of mothers to monitor and sustain their children's growth is proposed in this paper. Rather than a passive recipient of health services, the mother becomes the basic health worker, providing diagnostic and therapeutic primary care for her child. Only the mother can break the malnutrition-infection cycle.