Stunting is a nutritional problem that has received special attention from the government. Quoted from the stunting.go.id page, based on the results of the 2021 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) conducted by the Ministry of Health, the stunting prevalence rate in Indonesia in 2021 is 24.4%, or a decrease of 6.4% from 30.8%. in 2018. Currently the government has a target to reduce prevalence to 14% in 2024. This is of course a special challenge for health workers in Indonesia.

The Buleleng Bali Indonesian Child Nurses Association (IPANI) faced the same thing. As a partner of the Pediatric Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, University Indonesia, based on data from the Buleleng Health Office, there are still children with the status of severely malnourished toddlers and underweight toddlers, with toddlers whose weight does not increase in a row, a total of 455 children, and there are 38 children in Buleleng who experiencing stunting.

This condition made the Deputy Regent of Buleleng, I Nyoman Sutjidra, ask each village to budget specifically for health care to prevent stunting cases.

“Stunting is a condition of failure to thrive which has implications for the next generation, implications for life, productivity, to economic life, productivity, and Indonesia’s economic progress.” Tukas I Nyoman Sutjidra

Community service initiated by Dr. Nur Agustini, SKp., MSi, Head of the FoN UI Child Nursing Department, and in collaboration with the Indonesian Child Nurses Association for the Bali area provided education for 50 cadres in the Buleleng sub-district, especially in the working area of ​​the Sawan 1 Health Center.

“Toddlers diagnosed with stunting certainly need special attention, because the impact of chronic malnutrition on children can disrupt their growth and development.” Said Nur Agustini.

Luh Komang Yuliasih, S.Tr. Gz as the person in charge of the nutrition program at the Sawan I Public Health Center said “The Sawan I Health Center has several programs to improve nutrition, namely nutrition counseling and counseling individually or in groups, monitoring the nutritional status of toddlers through the Posyandu once a month. However, this program has not been running effectively because counseling and counseling have not been carried out by cadres.”

Luh Komang Yuliasih welcomed the UI community service team who provided education for 50 cadres at the Sawan 1 Health Center. “After the cadre training there was an increase in the implementation of Posyandu by the cadres. Before attending the cadre training, they did not conduct counseling or counseling at all, but after the cadre training, they were able to apply it at their respective Posyandu.” Strictly speaking.

A month after the training, an evaluation of 50 cadres participating in the training was carried out with the results obtained that 100% of the cadres were able to examine the growth and development of children and provide counseling to mothers of toddlers and 80% experienced an increase in knowledge based on the results of the pre and post tests.

The results of weighing the body weight carried out by cadres on 100 toddlers, namely 77% of toddlers experienced weight gain, 9% body weight remained constant, and 14% experienced weight loss. Mothers of toddlers who received cadre services and guidance were 100% satisfied with satisfaction scores of 4 and 5 (satisfaction score range 0-5).

“Mothers with toddlers feel that the health cadres are friendly towards mothers and toddlers, convey the purpose of the examination, carry out the examination well, speak politely, explain the results of the examination, explain the follow-up that the mother must do and give praise to the mother when doing good care.” Said Yuli, one of the toddler mothers who received the service.

The recommendations made by Luh Komang Yuliasih, she hopes that in the future the same training activities can be carried out for all cadres in the Sawan I Health Center area (249 people), so that these cadres can increase their activities in educating mothers with toddlers.