Nutrition for Infants, Children, and Adolescents
Works Cited Not INcluded
Each child is a unique individual whose heredity and environment shape the course of his or her life. Woven into the daily life are aspects of food and nutrition. What childhood memories of food do you have? Are these memories healthy or unhealthy? Foods and their nutrients are essential to life. In the beginning years of life an infant’s nutritional health depends on the family unit. Parents must have knowledge of the changing food needs of the child and must also have sufficient resources to provide food, shelter, and clothing for the family. Equally important, parents create the cultural and psychological environment that influences the
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The respiratory system undergoes major changes as the newborn’s lungs fill with air during the first breath, and gas exchange across the pulmonary circulation abruptly replaces placental transfer.
Similarly, birth triggers a major transformation in nutritional pathways and metabolism of the newborn. At a time when nutritional needs are high (per unit body weight higher than at any other time after birth) the newborn must abruptly begin to swallow, digest, and absorb a variety of complex proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. No longer are readily available simple substrates provided by the mother via the placenta. The newborn begins to convert substrates-protein to glucose, glucose to fat, and must adapt to a discontinuous supply of nutrients. Glycogen stored during feedings must be converted to glucose to support energy needs between feedings. Adding further to the vulnerability of the newborn period, many of the digestive and absorptive functions of the newborn are incompletely developed (Schmitz, 1991).
To ease the transition through this turbulent period, the newborn needs to be provided with easily digestible and bioavailable nutrition in the form of breast milk or infant formula. The infant depends on a diet of closely regulated composition and does not achieve nutritional independence until weaning.
Here I will focus on the physical growth
Nutrition is important to understand because it is a significant contributor to the health and wellness of a human being. Nutrition can determine the weight of a person, the performance of organs and the body’s ability to prevent or accelerate certain diseases. Health and nutrition can be influenced by several factors such as family, friends, peers as well as physical and mental stress. As a young child, the immediate family is the biggest influence on nutrition because they are the first role models and establish the initial habits that the individual will develop. Through daily meal plans given to children, they can develop a standard of care in regard to nutrition and then incorporate key food groups into their daily diet. A child’s
Since the beginning of time, the birth of a baby was a sign of a new life, and within today’s society, many of those lives start within a hospital with the assistance of different medical staff. Now, every family and parent is different in regards to the upbringing of their future child well before their birth, and in order to protect and support this idea; different programs were established within Canada. The Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program which was established in 1995 can be considered one, as they work to provide support to the health and wellbeing of pregnant women within different communities. Within their program some prominent goals mentioned are: to improve maternal-infant health, increase birth weight rate, and promote breastfeeding
As children transition to the family diet, recommendations address not only food, but also the eating context. A
Some mothers are not giving their infants the appropriate amount of nutrition that is required for growth and development. Without the proper nutrition a baby can have inadequate brain growth, cognitive deficits, and poorer-school performance. It is important that all mothers mix infant formulas correctly; this will prevent their babies from having health problems. Unfortunately, some mothers are over-diluting and over concentrating infant formulas. As a result, some babies are suffering from kidney damage, or weight loss. One way to ensure that a babies are getting the proper nutrition is by breastfeeding. It is recommended by the World Health Organization that mothers breastfeed their babies for at least six months. However, a mothers can
In today's fast-paced world, most parents make the mistake of feeding their children unhealthy food, which may not be the brightest idea, considering the fact that it can be very harmful to your kid's health. However, when it comes to healthy food and nutrition, many parents find it difficult to choose what is good for their children and what they can do to get them healthier. Not to worry, Nutrition4kids offers a reliable and expert guide to learning about and making the right food choices for your kids. From finding the right predigested formula to expert nutrition advice, you get everything and then some more only with Nutrition4kids.
Premature birth occurs at a time of rapid fetal growth and nutrient accumulation and therefore establishing postnatal nutrition is essential to achieve appropriate growth and maintain biochemical normality. There are significant risks with parentral nutrition like infection, cholestasis, hepatic dysfunction, thinning of gut mucosa and impairment of enzyme production. A delay in reaching full enteral feeding is linked to poor outcome in preterm neonates including postnatal growth restriction and failure to thrive issue especially in extremely low birth weight neonates. An increased length of time to reach full enteral feedings is also significantly associated with a poor mental outcome in preterm neonates at 24 months corrected
Although the advancement in medicine and technology makes it possible and tolerable. Immediately after surgery some babies require the aid of a breathing machine for support. It is important to understand that the act of returning the bowels to their proper place does not amount to them instantly functioning the way it was meant. As a result the baby is unable to consume food in the normal process, to overcome this the baby will receive nutrition through an IV (GASTROSCHISIS, 2016, P.3). Doctors will also drain the baby of waste products due to the bowels not functioning properly, and the baby’s inability to process waste (GASTROSCHISIS, 2016, P.2). Once the waste being removed from the body becomes clear this is an indication that bowel movements have begun and the baby can start small incremental feeds (GASTROSCHISIS, 2016, P.3). This process can be daunting as it potentially has many setbacks. Doctors recommend and it is beneficial if human milk is given as an early feeding to the baby because their stomach and bowels are still sensitive (GASTROSCHISIS, 2016, P.3). Also, there are many reasons why breastfeeding is the best choice. It can fight against infections, diseases, and chronic conditions and infants are more likely to successfully consume the mother’s breast milk without rejecting
“Nutritional status is the balance between nutrient intake and nutrient requirements” (Jarvis, 2012). “Optimal nutritional status is achieved when sufficient nutrients are consumed to support [the] body’s needs and any increased metabolic demands caused by growth, pregnancy, or illness” (Jarvis, 2012). Newborns require intense nutritional and metabolic needs as they increase 50% in their length in the first year of life and double it by 4 years of age (Jarvis, 2012). Breast milk provides “specific nutrition” that meets the infant’s nutritional needs and there has been “indisputable evidence” from research that demonstrates the health benefits of breastfeeding infants including a “lower incidence [of diseases] such as otitis media, atopic
The presentation by Ms. Kaupa on Infant and Childhood nutrition was fascinating to me because some day I aspire to become a pediatrician. Before this presentation I knew breast milk was essential because of the antibodies it provided for the baby. However, after the presentation I know understand infant nutrition is much more complex than needing fat and antibodies.
in children there is the rapid physical growth and development of fine and motor skills. Hence, nutrition is needed to support these development. the right kind of a balanced diet helps towards building up a child's muscle and immune system, as well as creating several pathways in the brain to aid
Breast milk provides the infant with nutrition that the infant needs. Breast milk is made up of a
The nutritional requirements of children differ according to their age and activity levels. The basic principles of a healthy diet are the same for all groups, including adults. The correct balance of macro and micro nutrients differs however as children need their food intake to support physical and mental
Investigating the effects of parental feeding practises has been central to psychological research, studying developmental changes in children throughout a lifespan. The term ‘parental feeding practises’ refers to the method in which attitudes and experiences mould the different foods children are exposed to, along with timing regulations, social context of meals and establishing emotional regulations of eating occurrences, (Birch & Fisher, 1995). It is evident that parents play a crucial and dominant role in developing family eating habits as well as providing a suitable environment for which the child experiences a family meal, (Birch & Fisher, 1998). More importantly, experimental research by Birch et al., (2001) discovered two main
When a mother gives birth to a newborn, one of the many new questions she will have is should I breast feed or bottle-feed my new son or daughter? As a future health care provider it is very important that we can properly educate the mother on the best choice for her health as well as the baby’s. While bottle-feeding may be the easiest and quickest way to feed a newborn, it’s hardly the most nutritional option.
Imagine a tiny baby born at only thirty weeks and weighs in at 3lbs 5oz. This baby is now considered to be a premature infant. When this happens to a newborn they are immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to be assessed and possibly assisted with involuntary actions such as breathing and temperature control. The infant’s body might not be developed enough to regulate blood glucose, fight off infection, or maintain proper liver function. The most substantial concern in premature infants in weight gain. The best way to tackle most of the complications that come with a premature birth is breast milk. Depending on the level of maturity, the newborn can either breastfeed directly from the breast, or the milk can