Essay Sample on Nutrition in Childcare

Introduction

According to Ann. C "The Importance of Nutrition in Early Childhood Development", there exists a great relationship between health and nutrition as well as learning. Nutrition is essential in child development. She argues that nutrition at the early stages impacts future performance and also health. It is important to maintain good healthy foods at the tender age of a kid since their school performance will be directly affected. Some foods are good for development. Though it may not always mean parents should provide such food, they should be responsible for what their kids take.

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The author Ann Chulack argues that, even if the definition for child nutrition starts at the early stages of life, under-nutrition during fetal development may affect the brain development process leading to chronic illness. Also, under-nutrition during breastfeeding may have similar effects such as poor mental development in young toddlers. In order to bring up healthy children right from the roots, there is a great need for mothers to make healthy foods and a balanced diet. A child needs various nutrients for development such as carbohydrates, vitamins A, B, C, and D, iron, calcium, and proteins. These nutrients are mostly included in most diets even if sound overbearing at a glance.

Children should consume all of the above nutrients for proper growth and development. Consuming such nutritive diets has significant benefits for health. Mothers breastfeeding their children and keeping a balanced diet reduce disease and illness cases among young children such as bacterial meningitis, ear infection, and diarrhea. This is a result of strong immunity to children and natural ability enhancement. Also, children get minerals such as iron suitable for brain development, iron deficiency may lead to slower nerve impulse movement which may result in permanent brain damage to children within the age of two years. There are related behavioral changes at this period and delayed psychomotor development.

Undernutrition may result in decreased child activity, poor social interactions, affected cognitive functioning and curiosity. Even though many parents argue that their children were not that playful on the bed in the morning, good nutrition remains a vital practice.

Academic performance and nutrition- It has been discovered that, whatever the child consumes at a tender age from months to years, results in future effects. Throughout early childhood, monitoring a child's intake may be helpful in administering good and improved performance. A good example is breastfeeding which has been seen to raise IQ. Iron deficiency leads to low cognitive and school-age achievement. Malnourished children are prone to getting diseases easily, they are more likely to miss school and classes frequently. Research conducted on children receiving breakfast and those who go without has revealed that students who take breakfast in the morning have better tests performance than those going without.

Ann. C (September 11th, 2016) the Importance of Nutrition in Early Childhood Development.
With increased mothers in the working class, either as part-time or full-time workers in most families, most children are left in the care of childcare centers. Approximate 13 million American preschool children are under childcare programs as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics. This implies that over 60% of Americans aged 6 years and under are under the supervision of either a babysitter or simply someone else apart from the real parent. A third of the pre-school children are enrolled in childcare programs while 20% were under home-based care programs, the remaining children were under relative and babysitter supervision.

Parents have no choice on what their children take when away, this option remains in the hands of the childcare program. There need for a safe nurturing environment. The form of nutrition should be of importance to the parents. The food quality a child takes when the parent is away while at the childcare has both long-term and short-term effects. The more the child is to be taken care of away from the parent the kind of nutrition is of significant importance. Poor nutrition may lead to poor eating habits which may result in retardation in children.

A child's nutritional habit is highly affected by the parent's influence. Caregivers influence the feeding patterns of youngsters. A child gets modeled by the daily spending with the caregiver. A child may spend most of the time with the caregiver which also influences their social behaviors such as developing admiration and identifying with the sitter whom he/she sees daily.

Conclusion

In order to get the daily dietary consumption information, an interview was conducted on three categories, a preschooler, a school-aged child, and adolescence on their daily intake. After interviewing the preschooler, it was revealed that most children said that, they took milk, snacks, lean meat, legumes, eggs, seafood, and poultry. Most pre-school children did not get access to vegetables and fruits. Some of the interviewed children said that they took fruits periodically skipping some days.

Most school-aged children confirmed that they took fruits on a regular basis, vegetables, Yogurt, chicken sandwich, milk, cereals as well as crackers. Most children were taking breakfast before going to school. Only a few children confirmed they were skipping some days.

An interview on teenagers suggested that most teenagers do not concentrate on taking nutritive foods. Most teens are concerned about taking snacks and yogurt. A few teens had a concern about taking breakfast in the morning. The interview showed that concern for nutrition was reducing progressively as the age changed from school-aged children to teens.

References

Hu, C., Ye, D., Li, Y., Huang, Y., Li, L., Gao, Y., & Wang, S. (2010). Evaluation of a kindergarten-based nutrition education intervention for pre-school children in China. Public health nutrition, 13(2), 253-260.

Prado, E. L., & Dewey, K. G. (2014). Nutrition and brain development in early life. Nutrition reviews, 72(4), 267-284.

Martorell, R., & Habicht, J. P. (1986). Growth in early childhood in developing countries.

Martorell, R., & Habicht, J. P. (1986). Growth in early childhood in developing countries.