Right food for your baby to keep diseases at bay
Nutrition plays a vital role in the growth and development of a baby. But can too much of a good thing be cumbersome for a parent? There are moments when parents will tell you that their child is feeding all the time. Often breastfeeding moms may feel their milk is not sufficient causing a bit of distress.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that babies be breast exclusively for the first four to six months. But some parents find it hard to cope and introduce other foods to ensure their children are satisfied.
But breastfeeding can be draining to a mother, particularly when a child wants to feed all the time. There is a reason why babies behave like this. Ever heard of a growth spurt? The medical dictionary defines a growth spurt as a period of speedy development.
Babies often go through a growth spurt at certain key moments even though it depends on each child. But generally, growth spurts manifest after birth, after one to three weeks, six to eight weeks, at three months, six months and between seven and nine months.
During this stage, babies become irritable and tend to have sleep disturbances as they awake more at night to nurse. This also happens during the day and for the mother, it may appear like the baby is not getting full.
It is normal during a spurt for babies to require more feeding and breastfeeding. Mothers should go with the flow in order to increase milk production to nourish the child. Ensure the child is adequately gaining weight. This spurt period may last 24 to 48 hours but it may be prolonged to a week. But keep up with the on-demand feeding as it is healthy for your child.
Malnutrition
There is a flipside to not taking a baby’s nutritional needs seriously. According to WHO, malnutrition contributes to 11 per cent of all diseases and leads to long-standing ill health and disability. It also affects children’s development and interferes with their education.
According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey, chronic malnutrition accounts for 30 per cent of children under five, 6 per cent are extremely malnourished and 20 per cent are underweight. Malnutrition leads to illnesses and deaths.
Facts about malnutrition:
- 50,000 children die annually because of being underweight.
- 10,000 die due to insufficient Vitamin A.
- Another 11,000 die because of lack of exclusive breastfeeding.
- 400,000 children suffer from mental retardation annually for lack of iodised salt.
Nutrition is a government’s priority as acknowledged by Kenya Vision 2030, which aims to change Kenya into a prosperous and economically healthy nation by that year. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), ‘if children were well-fed and taken care of, the first five Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that includes abolition of dire poverty and famine will be met.’
Curbing Malnutrition
Human health and development is greatly impacted by nutrition. Good nutrition enhances children’s health and builds stronger immunity. This in turn reduces the risk of non-communicable illnesses like cardiovascular ailments and diabetes.
Healthy children also tend to excel in learning. This contributes to more productivity which severs the sequence of hunger and poverty.
WHO recommends that ‘enhancing practices on exclusive breastfeeding and incorporating appropriate supplementary feeding while continuing on breastfeeding for equal to two years or further; could save 1.5 million children under five annually.’
Malnutrition may result in life-long impairment to health and efficiency, according to the 2010 Global Hunger Index. Research indicates that the period to cub malnutrition in children is from conception to age two. After this age, the consequences of malnutrition are irreparable.
END: BL 42/28-19