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The mountain villages have long suffered from chronic hunger, growing only enough staples to feed themselves less than seven months out of the year, she said.
But families normally have enough to last through December. This year, Haiti's agriculture ministry estimates 60 percent of the harvest was lost in the storms nationwide. Land quality is already poor and farmers lost seeds for next year when the storms hit, Kaulard said.
Effects of the storms vary widely from village to village and even family to family. In some places, food supplies seem intact. In others, Doctors Without Borders has found rates of severe malnutrition as high as 5 percent.
Aid shortages may soon compound the problem. Donor countries have funded only a third of the U.N.'s $105 million aid appeal for Haiti following the storms, and resources could run out in January, Kaulard said.
At the hospital Thursday, Enock Augustin sat beside the bed where his 5-year-old daughter Bertha was sleeping. The fragile-looking child was evacuated by helicopter Nov. 8 with vomiting and diarrhea. When she arrived, nearly a quarter of her body weight was due to fluid retention, a sign of severe protein deficiency.
The swelling gradually receded as she was fed nutrient-enriched milk and treated with antibiotics and anti-worm medicine; she shrank to just 21 pounds.
She has since gained about two pounds but can't go home until she reaches 26 pounds, doctors said.
For months, the Augustin family had gotten by despite the soaring prices of corn grits and imported rice because they grew potatoes, which they could eat or barter for plantains, yams and breadfruit that did not fluctuate with the world market.
But then, in August, Tropical Storm Fay hit, followed by Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike.
"Every time a hurricane came through, it killed our animals and plants," said Augustin, a father of six. The road was washed out, markets became unreachable and "the price of everything went sky high."
The entire family subsisted on two cups of corn grits, and Bertha began shrinking - and then swelling - before his eyes.
"She was really bad. We put her in the helicopter and they brought her here," Augustin said. "I hope the government will hear about us and bring more support."
Pierre Davidson, 3, who suffers from malnutrition, lies on a bed at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Aid workers fear hunger is worsening in rural Haiti after at least 26 children died of conditions exacerbated by a lack of nutrition, raising concerns that a grave food crisis may be brewing following four devastating tropical storms.
(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Venecia Lonis, 4, who suffers from malnutrition, is held before being weighed at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Aid workers fear hunger is worsening in rural Haiti after at least 26 children died of conditions exacerbated by a lack of nutrition, raising concerns that a grave food crisis may be brewing following four devastating tropical storms.
