Nutrition and Development of a Child

For a baby to grow up properly means his/her sufficient nutrition, growth, intelligence, and development. Three important factors are liable for this proper buildup. These are:

• Adequate food.
• Basic health care and a healthy environment.
• Proper care of child and mother.

Adequate food means the family’s ability to ensure food throughout the year. Identifying the sickness correctly and providing proper treatment is a part of health care. Air pollution, water pollution, sound pollution, useful family environment, etc. are all barriers to a healthy environment. A mother’s health care is essential for improved child health. This is with the connection surrounded by a fruit and a tree. A healthy mother gives birth to a healthy baby and the mother can take care of the baby properly if she is disease-free. It protects the health of the baby. These conditions of nutrition, growth, intelligence and development of children can be summarized as:

• Food
• Health and
• Care

Here I will discuss the feeding and caring practices of a baby. When it comes to baby food, we should first mention the mother’s breast milk. It is the grace of God to provide mother’s milk.  Every child’s life must begin with a mother’s breastfeeding and up to 06 months of age he/she will eat nothing but mother’s milk, not even a drop of water.

Here we outline some basic principles of feeding a one-year-old-baby:

• Up to 06 months of age, the baby will only drink the mother’s milk.
• After completing 06 months the baby’s digestive system becomes capable of accepting weaning food.
• That doesn’t mean that the baby should be fed all the foods at once.
• Weaning food should be started gradually. The child should be given food one by one so that the baby can digest it easily.
• Up to 09 months of age, the mother’s milk will be the main food of the baby.
• Until 09 months old, the baby cannot feed the white portion of the egg.
• From 09 months to 01 years of age, weaning foods should be increased gradually.
• The baby’s food should be low in quantity but rich in nutrition.
• Until 01 years of age, it’s better not to feed cow milk or full cream tin milk to the baby.
• After 01 years of age, the family food will be the major food for the baby.

A sample of starting weaning foods after completing 06 months of age of the baby.

• 1st week: Suzy (semolina+ oil + salt+ small amount of sugar. Make a mixture with these components and feed the baby 1-2 times a day.
• 2nd week: Suzy’s Halua + Fruits (ripe banana, papaya) 1-2 times a day.
• 3rd week: Suzy’s Halua + Fruits + egg yolk 2-3 times a day.
• 4th week: Start feeding hotchpotch + above started food 2-3 times a day.

Procedure for preparing hotchpotch:

02 handful of rice + 01 handful of pulses + 01 handful of colored vegetables + 03 teaspoons of oil + half of onion + salt as required. You can use any kind of rice and pulse in hotchpotch. By colored vegetables, we set sight on green, yellowish-brown, and red vegetables. It is better to use innocent character oil for the children. It’s ok if you do not use turmeric, chili, and other spices in the recipe.

The density of weaning foods: 3

As the child grows up, the energy density of the food should be increased according to his/her needs such that 01 (one) gram of food contains 1.5-2.0 calories and this can be achieved by mixing oil/ghee/fat/butter with the food. Because 01 grams of oil contains 09 calories.

If the density of the food is correct, the baby’s food will be nutritious, and then he/she can chew foods, learn the test of foods, and can swallow them easily.

Dense foods have more energy, protein, and other nutrients than liquid foods, which help the baby grow.

The baby’s food should not be too dilute or thin. The more formless or skinny the food is, the lower will be the nutritional value of the food.  It is important to remember that the baby’s stomach is very small, so giving thin food to the baby will fill his/her stomach but he/she will get less nutrition. If the baby’s stomach is full, he will not want to eat.

When preparing the baby’s food, it should be noted that the amount of rice should be relatively low. There should be dense or thick pulses (not water in this area the stalk or broth) and at least either one of the fish, the meat, or egg should be fed once daylight. The food should be prepared in such a mannerism that it doesn’t fall from the hand easily.

From the age of 08-09 months, the baby should start a habit of taking foods to his mouth with his own hands. For this reason, the foods should be cut into small pieces and given to the baby. The foods such as sweet pumpkin fry, unripe/green banana fry, chicken liver, egg (the habit the baby likes to eat). Besides this, he/she should be given fruits such as ripe mango, papaya, jackfruit cutting them into small pieces so that he/she can hold the food by his own hands and eats it himself/herself.

Quantity of food:

After 06 months of age, the baby grows very quickly. That’s why the quantity of his/her meal should be increased simultaneously. From 06 months to 24 months of age, the baby’s weaning food should be increased according to his/her age.

The appropriate amount of food for babies of 06 to 23 month of age:

Age amount times in a day total amount of food daily 6-8 month (complete) 250 ml (1/2 Bowl) 2 times 250ml 9-11 months (complete) 250ml (1/2 Bowl) 3 times + 1-2 times nutritious refreshment 375ml + 1-2 times nutritious refreshment 12-23 months (complete) 250 ml (1 bowl) 3 times + 1-2 times nutritious refreshment 750ml + 1-2 times nutritious refreshment

Five key messages for safe food

• Before preparing, serving, or eating any food, the hands must be washed behind soap and safe water.
• The utensils used for preparing food also have to be cleaned with safe water.
• The food should be stored at a safe temperature.
• The food must always be covered properly.
• When heating the food, it should be heated properly (at least at 70-100 degrees Celsius temperature).
• Feeding the baby during and after his/her illness
• The baby should be fed the mother’s breast milk frequently.
• He/she should be feed nutritious foods that he/she likes.
• He/she should be fed a small amount of food at a time but frequently.
• After recovering from his/her illness until he/she reaches his previous weight, he/she should be fed nutritious foods frequently.
• Up to 7-10 days after recovery, behind his/her hunger increases, he should be fed homemade foods enriched in imitation of at least 4 out of the 7 types of food.

 List of foods for 1-2 years pass a baby: 

Feed the baby breast milk as much as possible. Before breastfeeding, feed the child an adequate amount of rice, pulse, semolina, hotchpotch, egg, fish, meat, green vegetables, colorful ripe fruits such as mango, banana, papaya, jackfruit, or other home meals 05 times a day.

List of foods for a child of 2 years and above:

Feed the child 03 times a day with foods that other family members usually eat at home. Between these meals, feed him/her with 02 more meals containing nutritious foods. These foods may be biscuits, bread, oil impure puffed rice, cake, or fruits considering ripe mango, jackfruit, papaya, banana, etc.

Child’s intelligence and development:

The intelligence and development of a child mainly depend on the maturation of his/her brain A baby is born with 33% of his/her brain volume. In the first year, the brain grows up to 55% approximately and in the second year, it becomes 95%. The remaining part of the brain develops within 05 or 06 years of age. Therefore the first 5-6 years of a child’s life is very important for his/her brain development and the first 02 years are the most important. The human brain contains crores of neuron cells.  Our brain will perform properly later then these neurons become interconnected. This is the same as a telephone connection. Suppose there are 100 telephones in a city. But these telephones are not interconnected by wires. In that case, these telephones are inactive. Similarly, neuron connections have to be made in the child’s brain in the first 05 years of age. If it is not so, it will not be attainable thereafter. It is like the “All or none” law. Therefore the first 5-6 years of life is very vital for the development of a child. So if this period era is utilized properly, later the child will be a perfect public asset tomorrow. Making the child enthusiastic and sensitive enough about him/her and his/her brain’s neuron cells and builds their interconnection.

What should be our task in this matter is discussed here: 

• Teach the baby to identify and learn about different body parts, living creatures, and other objects.
• Let the baby play with little boxes, wood pellets, or plastic material of different sizes, shapes, and colors.
• Talk to the baby a lot and tell him/her short stories with colorful pictures.
• Sing some rhymes with the baby and allow him/ her to draw with paper and pencil.
• If the baby is afraid of something, try to know the cause and dismiss the fare.
• Encourage the baby to learn small daily activities like eating rice, washing hands, brushing teeth, wearing clothes, combing hair, etc.
• Help the baby to walk by himself and allow him/her to stand or walk holding and support.
• Give him/her the opportunity to play with other children and also take part in playing with him.
• Let the baby walk, run, jump, and play by throwing balls safely.
• Answer all his/her questions with correct pronunciation and teach him to speak correctly and politely.
• Children learn by following the elder’s activities. So prosecution yourself into your liking character subsequent to and prematurely of the baby. Don’t quarrel in the stomach of him/her.
• Children are a great asset. The merged of relatives and a nation depends on their nutrition and magnification. So we must be very attentive and tactful toward the child’s growth and nourishment as well as invest enough time for the child.

Reference:
Food, Health, and care, by James P. Grant, UNICEF
Take the Baby-Friendly Initiative, UNICEF