“Good Nutrition is a foundation of a child’s survival, health, and development”.
What are your insights on this quote?
According to the World Health Organization (2021), 149 million children under 5 years of age were estimated to be stunted, 45 million were too think, and 38.9 million were obese globally. Good nutrition is truly one of the foundations of a child’s survival, health, and development. Most deaths among children were linked to undernutrition and occur mostly on low to middle-income countries. Thus, I think good nutrition plays a vital role not only to ensure healthy birth weight, but also a good development of the brain and reduction of risks of developing health problems.
Nutrition of children starts with the mother. As a fetus, we get the nutritional content of the food our mother consumes. It is a major intrauterine environmental factor that may produce lifelong consequences if not properly addressed. The first one is low birth weight among newborns. In the Philippines, there are about 95 children that die every day and 27 out of 1000 Filipino children die by their fifth birthday (UNICEF, nd). Not receiving adequate nutrition also affect physical growth and maturation wherein growth rate slows down which results to the child being shorter and thinner than the recommended height and weight.
Moreover, poor diet does not only slow down the growth of the bones and muscles but also negatively affects how the brain works. According to Ausmed (2016), good nutrition helps improve a child’s cognitive development. Therefore, since there is a huge percentage of children who receives inadequate nutrients in low and middle-income countries, this causes children to have less energy wherein they develop less interest for learning which degrades their academic performance as well as their cognitive development. A study wherein nutrition is related to social behavior was performed among a sample of preschool children. It is shown that those with poor nutritional status show lower positive social functioning compared to those children who receive proper nutrition. Mood can be also affected by food. Poor diet often results to mixed emotions wherein behavioral problems become an issue among children.
Furthermore, poor nutrition also often results to developing long-term health problems including osteoporosis as the calcium production declines while aging, cardiovascular diseases when children are used to consume too much fats, diabetes, and hypertension. Without proper guidance and health teaching to manage the children’s diet, they are prone to making unhealthy food choices that may lead to many complications as they grow older.
It is indeed important to address nutritional issues among children because childhood is a critical point of growth and development of a person wherein they establish their physical and mental abilities. Poor nutrition should be addressed immediately because it is disturbing how some children do not even get to experience their fifth birthday because of malnutrition. As student nurses, it is our job to advocate for these children and to provide adequate prenatal care for expecting mothers to ensure that the mother and baby would get adequate nutrients.
References:
Child survival. (n.d.). UNICEF Philippines. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.unicef.org/philippines/child-survival#:%7E:text=Every%20day%2C%2095%20children%20in,or%20short%20for%20their%20age.&text=During%20adolescence%2C%20children%20are%20faced,their%20health%20and%20well%2Dbeing.
Fact sheets - Malnutrition. (2021, June 9). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition#:%7E:text=Globally%20in%202020%2C%20149%20million,age%20are%20linked%20to%20undernutrition.
Guoyao Wu, Fuller W. Bazer, Timothy A. Cudd, Cynthia J. Meininger, Thomas E. Spencer, Maternal Nutrition and Fetal Development, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 134, Issue 9, September 2004, Pages 2169–2172, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/134.9.2169
Healthy Eating in Children: Problems Caused by Poor Nutrition | Michigan Medicine. (2020, December 17). University of Michigan Health. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/ug2061
Infant and Young Child Feeding: Model Chapter for Textbooks for Medical Students and Allied Health Professionals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2009. SESSION 1, The importance of infant and young child feeding and recommended practices. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK148967/
Lewin, J. (2020, August 9). Behaviour in children: how diet can help. BBC Good Food. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/behaviour-children-food-and-additives