FIRST 1000 DAYS FORUM
“Good Nutrition is a foundation of a child’s survival, health, and development”.
What are your insights on this quote?
Sustaining and guaranteeing a child's optimal health growth and development requires proper nourishment. As UNICEF promotes healthy nutrition as the underpinning for child growth and development, it is indeed, fundamental to a child’s survival, health, and development. With the definition given by UNICEF, I envision well-nourished children who have a stronger immune system, substantial growth, and overall better holistic health as children who could participate effectively in daily activities catered for optimal development essential to promote a healthy and productive quality of life in the future.
Good nutrition should be supplied in the early stages of life including the first 1000 days as it plays an enormous role in an individual's quality of life. In my own perspective, nutrition pertains to improved health and disease resistance towards prevention. A healthy body allows for optimal growth and development, while a robust immune system aids in survival from various potentially deleterious agents or diseases, in general. Hence, healthy nourishment acts as the basis for establishing a child's means of reaching success.
Newborns may have higher immunity to illnesses if mothers practice providing excellent nourishment to their infants through exclusive and sufficient nursing between an hour of delivery till 6 months. Disorders associated with short gestation and low birth weight are common complications that lead to infant concerns or even fatality. Preterm and underweight births can be avoided with excellent nutrition throughout a mother's childbearing process. The British Medical Journal (2014) states that pregnant women who consume a 'prudent' diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and water had a considerably lower risk of premature birth and a "traditional" diet of boiled potatoes, seafood, and cooked vegetables was also connected to a decreased risk. All of these aim to provide good nutrition to support both the child and the mother’s optimal development.
Subsequently, poor nutrition throughout the first 1000 days of life has a negative impact on development. For instance, a child would develop a reduced IQ level which may lead to poor school performance due to delayed brain development that would facilitate impaired learning. These challenges in a child's development may be brought significantly in the adult stages of life, resulting in lower economic production and jeopardized socioeconomic progress. In its essence, proper nutrition leads to greater IQ, improved school performance and learning, enhanced socioeconomic state, and hence better achievements and status in life which would, therefore, make the person’s life worth living and worthwhile.
With this, the cruciality of good nutrition is exposed in the early stages of life, hence, this must be supplied and observed for the benefit and wellbeing of the child. Essentially, the quality of a child’s life in the future is influenced by nutrition provided during his first 1000 days.
Connectively, I'd like to share a quote by the famous inventor, Thomas Edison which states,
"The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition."
References:
British Medical Journal (2014). Mother's diet linked to premature birth: fruits, and vegetables linked to reduced risk of preterm delivery. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140304210159.htm
Iellamo, E.A. (2022). First 1000 Days. University of the Philippines Manila Virtual Learning Environment: https://vle.upm.edu.ph/login/index.php
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2020). Nutrition, for Every Child: UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020–2030. UNICEF, UNICEF, New York (pdf)