Dear Editor,

While being of short stature can be an annoyance in the developed world, stunting among young children in the developing world is a serious problem for those children, their families and their nations. The World Health Organization defines stunting as having a height-for-age more than two standard deviations below the median for children zero to four years old due primarily to chronic malnutrition and poor sanitation. Globally, 161 million under-five year olds were estimated to be stunted in 2013.

Twenty-nine month old twins from Anderson spent 10 days in Riley Hospital for Children earlier this month after suffering alleged neglect and severe malnutrition over the course of several months. According to police, the twins and their six and seven year old sisters had been living in a 16 square foot area strewn with feces …read more.