The paediatric wing of the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) will start a 10-bed nutritional rehabilitation centre within the next two months for malnourished children.

The centre will admit such children for 21 days and provide them with proper nutritional food and medicines. The children's mothers will also be kept at the centre and taught how to prepare low cost nutritional food and maintain proper hygiene for the children.

The move would benefit many like Guddu, a two-year-old who suffers from acute malnourishment. She needs immediate attention failing which she could die, doctors have told Guddu's mother Savita Devi.

"A separate hospital team would look after the malnourished children," said A.K. Jaiswal, head of the paediatrics department at PMCH. "The health department is going to recruit nine staff for the centre, including a medical officer, four nurses, a nutritional counsellor, a cook-cum-caretaker, a ward attendant-cum-cleaner and a social worker who would be entrusted to identify such children and bring them to the centre. We have earmarked the Rain Basera building in the paediatrics department campus to start a separate kitchen for the centre."

Jaiswal added: "Items such pulses, jaggery, oats, vegetables, egg and milk would be provided to the children. Their mothers would be informed about low-cost nutritious food preparations so that once children are sent back, they could be provided with nutritious food at home as well."

The National Family Health Survey has warned about alarming malnourishment among children and women in the state.

According to the survey's latest figures released two weeks ago, 61 lakh children under five years of age are severely malnourished in Bihar and 80 lakh children in the same age group are anaemic.

The state's infant mortality rate stands at 48, which means 48 out of every 1,000 newborn babies die within a year of birth.

The survey also revealed that out of every 1,000 children in Bihar, 58 die before they reach age five."A severely malnourished child has chances of developing various complications, including hypoglycaemia, a condition in which the blood sugar level decreases," Jaiswal said. "There are chances of brain damage in such a disorder. Besides, are also prone to infections as their immunity level decreases. The children can also develop hypothermia, a condition in which the body temperature drops."