Nutrition that Lasts a Lifetime!

            The journey of a healthy nutritional lifestyle starts before we take our very first breath! That’s right, while we are still developing in the womb, the choices in foods, drinks, vitamins/minerals our mothers make will have a lasting impact on the child throughout their lives. If a child does not receive the necessary vitamins/minerals, and sources of energy, the child can develop lifelong diseases, birth defects and sadly for some, die before entering the world. Let us look first at the recommendations for an expecting mother and how they should prepare and eat for two.

During pregnancy, it is recommended that the woman must start eating for not only herself, but the developing fetus growing inside of her. The woman must also maintain a healthy body-weight to avoid becoming underweight or malnourished. A direct result of this occurring is a child becoming a low birthrate statistic. A child can be considered this when they are under 5.5 pounds at birth which leads to a multitude of health concerns and birth defects. According to section 13.1, “a child who weighs less than 5.5 pounds is forty times more likely to die in its first year of life” (Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. 2017). Not only must the mother eat healthy as possible, but they nasty habits of life such as smoking and drinking alcohol must come to an end as well for the duration of her pregnancy.

The numbers on how many babies suffer from alcohol syndrome (FASD) last year is astonishing. According to the CDC (Center for Disease and Control) there were 1.5 out of every 1,000 live births in the United States where FASD was identified. The hardest part about this disease is that most of the cases go undiagnosed until the child shows behavior patterns when they are in a school environment. “Studies using in-person assessment of school-aged children in several U.S. communities report higher estimates of FASD: 6 to 9 out of 1,000 children” (USA.gov 2018).

The father of the child also must stick to a specific nutritional plan. Fertility studies across the country have reached a consensus to recommended that the male intakes a higher amount of fruits and vegetables and avoid excess alcohol consumption to avoid infertility issues. Just like women, men also have a prenatal multivitamin that helps the body reach its full potential for this stage of life.

Once a child enters the stage of infancy, they are in what is known as one of the most critical periods of their lives. While breastfeeding their children, women must be wary of the foods and drinks they are consuming as to not poison their child. Section 13.5 informs us that “not only do infants grow rapidly fast, but also their basal metabolic rate is remarkably high-almost twice as high as that of an adult” (Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. 2017). Breast milk is the preferred source of an infant’s nutrients for the first six months of life.

Once in the stage of childhood, we must keep a watchful eye on nutrition due to a vast increase in muscles firming and strengthening in young children. This calls for a much higher array of vitamins and nutrients to be implemented in the child’s diet. If there are ever any questions about the caloric intake for your children, we can refer to Table 14-1, which outlines the calories needed for specific age groups.

At the stags of adolescence and adulthood life, we must begin consuming more fruits, vegetables, grains, and calcium rich foods to help aid and support growth spurts and puberty. Puberty is the “period of human development during which physical growth and sexual maturity occurs” (Polsdorfer, J. R. 2019). There is no specific number of calories for each child as they all have different habits, activity levels, and body types but it is wise to start healthy eating habits as soon as possible to avoid health problems and becoming obese later in life. “Energy balance is often difficult to regulate in this society—an estimated 15 percent of U.S. children and adolescents 6 to 19 years of age are overweight” (Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. 2017).

My personal top three methods/ways to maintain healthy eating habits are to:

1. Start young and stick to the plan.

2. Listen to those who are showing you a healthy example.

3. Research and follow FDA recommendations.

The more of us who would stick to these steps, the healthier we would be. The world is already dangerous enough for us to not take care of the only body we will ever get. Throughout this course, we have all come to know what the consequences of not eating and living a healthy lifestyle are. Hypertension, FASD, heart disease and cancer are just the main three we learned about. There are so many more dangers out there waiting for us to slip up. Thank you for taking this lifelong journey in nutrition with me, and I hope we can all take something away from the knowledge placed in front of us.

Works Cited:

1.    Polsdorfer, J. R. (2019). Puberty. Retrieved from: http://www.healthofchildren.com/P/Puberty.html

2.    Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2017). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (14th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
ISBN-13: 978-1-30563937-9, ISBN-10: 1-305-63937-5

3.    USA.gov (2018). CDC: Prevalence of FASD. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/data.html