Essay on Dieting Effects on Young Children's Brain Development

Introduction

Early childhood (mainly between one to five years) is a period of fast and intense postpartum brain growth; for instance, neural plasticity and of essential attainment of mental growth like functioning memory, responsiveness, and inhibitory regulation. Childhood is also a period of change from a direct parental facilitation/selection of diet-oriented nourishment to food assortment that is more grounded on individual choice and self-fulfillment. Appropriate stability of diet in this determinative period is crucial for normal brain development. Deficiencies of nutrients like iodine and iron can damage mental and motor growth and these impacts are usually unalterable. Equally, there is increasing proof that DHA, a fundamental fatty acid, is a major element of the concentrated creation of synapses that make the first years of life a crucial period of education and growth. Nevertheless, there have been limited published studies on the diet's role in young children's brain development (Cusick & Georgieff, 2016). This may be as a result of age variation, linguistic capacity, temperament, and outlines of neural activity that may influence the evaluation of cognitive and neural development.

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Brain growth and development is a life process that is subject to the effect of nurturing and biological elements and eventually to their interplay. During embryonic, fetal, and postnatal life, genomic determinants stipulate the outcome of neuronal progenitors and their movement to the brain sections. These hereditary determinants also control synaptic neural transmission and underwrite to the development and sustenance of the central nervous system. Consequently, environmental factors play a crucial role in determining neural formation through postnatal synaptic development that integrates continuous abilities into the establishing synaptic configuration of the brain. Nutrition is an environmental determinant because it signifies the availability of resources from the environment; for instance, food and water. Dietary composition directly modifies gene architecture and modulates the influence of hereditary elements by offering the precise molecules that facilitate genes to apply their possible or targeted impacts on brain growth and development. Appropriate nutrition increases the production of brain cells in young children. The development of the brain is reflected in the greater need for particular nutrients like folic acid, choline, zinc, iron, and special fats such as sphingolipids and gangliosides (Rosales, Reznick & Zeisel, 2009). Children have a right to optimum social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development. The paper will seek to understand the methods used to empirically examine this aspect, limitations, and implications of those studies in regards to dieting influencing a child's brain development.

Methodologies

Studies designed to evaluate dietary effects on young children's brain development have evaluated various aspects like age difference, linguistic capacity, temperament, and patterns of neural activity. In most studies like these, researchers use event-related brain potentials (ERPs), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These technologies are non-invasive methods for measuring brain size and activity during cerebral processing. They sustain promise for analyzing the neural sub-processes entailed in multi-faceted cerebral, motor, or perceptual responsibilities. Access to brain tissue is essentially constrained in human studies making investigational models crucial. By utilizing in vitro models or in vivo models, the impacts of diet can be examined by connecting dietary inadequacies to structural or operational changes in neural development and transformations in maturation and behavior. The crucial merit of utilizing the models is that they can enhance transmission for potential neurotrophic proxies, nutraceuticals, and dietary elements that influence neurogenesis and synaptogenesis (Prado & Dewey, 2014). Researchers achieve the screening processes by utilizing neural progenitor cells in primary cell culture or utilizing neuronal cell lines acquires from human beings or rodents.

The researchers use fMRI to map alterations in brain hemodynamics that resemble psychological activities and it is easy to view the configurations that engage in precise brain operations. The scholars also use MRS to characterize the biochemistry of the brain muscle by utilizing the transmission from protons to ascertain the formation of brain metabolites like creatine, N-acetyl aspartate choline and lactate in the tissue explored. Magnetic resonance imaging is utilized in research connecting brain structural alterations linked to hypoglycemia vs. hyperglycemia with cerebral functions. Additionally, researchers use in vivo models to assist recognize a gap of understanding to dietary factors for improving cognitive function. The eventual objective of this strategy is to offer proof of and illustrate a reasonable mechanistic pathway illustrating diet-induced structural change or biochemical change resulting in a behavioral change, which ought to be created consecutively and carefully connected among mechanical, operational, and interactive cognitive results. Researchers also use in vivo models in offering the link between the surplus consumptions, low vs. high, and therefore ascertaining a range of the dietary consumption that can increase cognitive-linked advantages.

Implications

A review of the recent literature on dietary effects on young children gives the reader more knowledge of brain development. After conception, efforts ought to emphasize dietary counseling and screening for nutrient deficiencies. It is also important for a woman to maintain a healthy maternal body weight during the breastfeeding period. Screening and handling maternal iron shortage is extremely important since over 15% of United States women are iron deficient in their child-bearing age. Studies have also indicated that management of weight and a decrease in obesity can impact the brain development of a child. In regards to the essential function of dietary factors in nurturing all facets of structural and operational growth, dietary inadequacies may have quite precise impacts on development. Nevertheless, studies that explore wide outcomes instead of precise underlying capabilities may lack the emphasis that would be required to record such detailed impacts. To better explain the above concept, studies examine the empirical evidence on psychological development in kids who have deficiencies in the level of iron. The data attained from this research is used to examine the level to which pertinent principles of developmental psychology and neuroscience have been adopted.

A more sensitive strategy for evaluating brain growth is to recognize and compute detailed facets of cognitive capability. The majority of intelligence tests offer subtest-scores to replicate differences like psychological vs. motor capacity or distinct competencies like problem-solving, memory, or oral capacity, but these subtest-scores occur from a moderately one-dimensional testing setting in which the researcher collaborates with the child utilizing different play-based resources. A more potential approach for evaluating detailed facets of mental capability is to utilize test center processes in which a facet of cerebral capacity can be computed in different settings using a wide range of result variables. Provided the objective of evaluating dietary effects on brain growth in youngsters is one to five years, memory and attention have been two aspects that have attained specific focus. Multiple processes have been imposed to compute endogenous focus in young children. Emphasized devotion can be evaluated using interactive scores of concentration while the child is playing with toys in the setting of a detailed disruption. One noticeable facet of the study examining dietary effects of iron on brain growth in youngsters is that most researchers have utilized a homogeneous evaluation of overall intelligence as the key result of attention.

Limitations

Assessments of performance on age-oriented responsibilities are the fundamental foundations for quizzes of universal intelligence in a brain growth background (for instance, the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, Bayley Scales of Infant Development, and Denver Developmental Screening Test), and this strategy has been extremely crucial when the objective is to recognize youngsters whose growth is progressive or lagging behind their age-mates. The key restriction of this strategy is that it offers no knowledge into the fundamental capabilities that impact the kid's scores, which could be essentially difficult if a dietary factor has a moderately detailed impact on brain development.

Numerous strategies can be polished for evaluating brain function in kids. There have been limitations in developing some mutual factors to be entailed in further scholarships of nutrition and psychological function. This can be attributed to the researchers' failure to complement the elements with the time of experience and the comprehension of statistics from animal approaches. Numerous researches have been limited to the use of gross measures like IQ which fail to provide the intended outcomes of a study. The studies are also unable to produce viable data for establishing dietary propositions. The impacts of dietary elements on brain growth may only happen during precise subtle intervals in brain growth.

The very fact that age difference, linguistic capacity, temperament, and patterns of neural activity influence brain development in a child shows that dieting is not the only element. There is no facet of physical or mental existence that is not influenced by dietary elements. From the studies viewpoint, more focus has been placed on the difficulties as a result of a deficiency in the diet. However, very little is provided about the surplus provision of essential elements. Some studies have evaluated the influence of dieting on rodents but there is not a clear illustration of their effects on humans. The studies have also limited ethical considerations especially when undertaking a research process on children. Some techniques used may have detrimental impacts on children hence not advisable.

Conclusion

The findings of research specific to the dieting of children give the readers greater knowledge on brain development in early childhood. Developments in neural technology permit the reader adequate prospects to better understand how dietary factors influence brain development in young children and through progressive studies, fundamental performance analysis can be conducted on a child. The strategy and clarification of future studies ought to take into consideration the dietary aspects to ensure there is appropriate cognitive development. Studies have revealed that dietary factors play a crucial role in brain growth in young children. Guidelines ought to support sufficient dietary intake for children between one to five years and more scrutiny of the quality of food they are given. Acquiring dietary histories, active teaching, and investigating food insecurity are crucial aspects that can be executed at a personal level. Analysis has also proven that brain development relies critically on the quality of a child's nutrition.

References

Cusick, S. E., & Georgieff, M. K. (2016). The role of nutrition in brain development: the golden opportunity of the "first 1000 days". The Journal of pediatrics, 175, 16-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.05.013
Prado, E. L., & Dewey, K. G. (2014). Nutrition and brain development in early life. Nutrition reviews, ...