First 1000 Day Forum
"Good Nutrition is a foundation of a child's survival, health, and development".
What are your insights on this quote?
Providing good children nutrition for children is based on the same fundamental principles as adult nutrition. Both require a well-balanced and nutritious diet to maintain a healthy body and promote growth and development. In early childhood, proper nutrition aids in the development of immunity against various infectious and non-infectious diseases, brain and other vital organs, and a child's activity levels and cognitive functioning. Good childhood nutrition is truly considered a critical part of life that lays the groundwork for children to live a healthy and balanced life.
In the Philippines, malnutrition remains one of the significant public health concerns, with an estimated 4.2 million children under five years stunted or too short of their age and about 300,000 children under five years who are severely wasted or too thin for their height. These numbers are quite alarming since various studies have shown that stunted children have life-long damaging consequences on their cognitive and intellectual capacities and those who are severely wasted have at least nine to twelve times increased risk of death. To address these problems, the government implemented the Republic Act of 11148 or the First 1,000 Days Law, which aims to improve maternal (pregnancy), neonatal (infancy), and child (toddlerhood) health and nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life. Currently, the F1Kd+ services are implemented at the local and national levels.
Reference:
Department of Health, National Nutrition Council, & United Nations Children's Fund. (2021). The First 1000 Days Manual of Procedures [PowerPoint slides]. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1hH0SXj1e0HHijhaKBW8IqUhTpMR6PZCl