[Nutritional problems in developing countries: priorities for the pediatrician].

Problems of nutrition in Third World countries must be approached on several levels with different emphases (a) the child (thoroughly tested and economical treatment); (b) mother and child (information about food given to children at home); (c) household (provision of supplies concentrated on households in which growth retardation is observed in children); (d) national (government health programs aimed at improvement of resources available to needy families mus be intensified); (e) international (with a great many specific socioeconomic problems to be tackled). The priorities in our attempts to solve the problems of adequate nutrition for children must be: analysis of the background to existing malnutrition; the development of standardized approaches; special training for medical and paramedical workers involved; evaluation of results; communication of procedures and results to others.