"Good Nutrition is a foundation of a child's survival, health, and development"
It has been emphasized to us since our course in Human Development that the most critical developmental period for a human is from conception until their first years of life. In our course Maternal & Child Nursing, I learned that we call this the first 1,000 days of life.
I believe that the good nutrition pertained to in the quote above does not only focus on the child's nutrition but also on the mother's nutritional status as well. For example, time and time again, we emphasize the importance of taking folic acid supplements during pregnancy (or ideally, before pregnancy) to ensure the proper development of the fetus. This all ties in nicely with the concept of preconception care and prenatal care. A child's nutritional status or condition after birth does not start at birth; in reality, a child's survival, health, and development are already affected by how the mother takes care of herself and by the quality and quantity of the food, vitamins, and minerals she consumes while she is carrying the infant in her womb -- basically even before the child is given birth. I believe the child's recorded weight, height, and gestational age at birth only reflect the mother's nutritional status and how much it has manifested in the child's condition.
Once the child is delivered, the caregivers now have the added responsibility to ensure the child's survival, health, and development by ensuring good nutrition for the rapidly growing infant. Ideally, this is done by feeding the infant through exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, then by introducing complementary feeding from six months until two years of life. Meanwhile, the mother should still be maintaining her good health along with the infant because the quality of her food intake still affects the quality of the breastmilk she is feeding her infant.
Indeed, good nutrition for both the child and the mother plays an important role in the child's survival, overall health, and development.