Nutritional status of Bedouin children aged 6-10 years in Lebanon and Syria under different nomadic pastoral systems.

This paper examines the nutritional status of Bedouin children under different nomadic pastoral systems. Anthropometric measurements (height and weight) and food intake were collected on 296 children aged 6–10 years from the Bedouin population of Lebanon and Syria. The sample included children from the semi‐settled Beqa'a Bedouins involved in livestock production and seasonal labor; the transhumant Bedouins of the Akkar area; the true nomads in the Palmyra desert; and the settled Bedouins herding governmental livestock in exchange for food and pay in Aleppo desert. Bedouin children of the Beqa'a area tended to have improved height and weight in all age groups. Z score distribution of Bedouin children as compared by their own position within the reference population (NCHS) manifested moderate to severe stunting (ht/age). Regarding height, 6.8% of the Beqa'a valley chidren, 14.8% of Akkar plains children, 24.0% of Palmyra desert children, and 41.1% of Aleppo desert children were below ‐2 S.D. for ht/age. A ...