Nourish your baby, it’s an investment

The average pregnant woman nurses the dream of having a healthy baby. She plans how she will feed her newborn immediately after birth till the baby could reasonably eat his food without much supervision, say from the age of two and over.These are laudable dreams and they are commendable. However, pregnant women must be aware that feeding a baby starts way before birth.

Experts say the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life hold the ace for how well he will turn out in terms of mental development, whether he will have a height that is commensurate with his age, or whether he will be short.

If it’s a baby girl, the mother’s feeding habit while pregnant will also determine if that girl-child will grow into an adult woman that will have her babies “normally” through the vaginal birth, or if she will have to go through caesarian operation each time she is pregnant!

In essence, a pregnant mother’s dietary habit can make or mar the future of her offspring! This is the conclusion of experts at a programme entitled Maternal and Child Nutrition, held by Nestle Nutrition Institute Africa.

A child’s first 1,000 days

When we talk about t he first 1,000 days of a child’s life, we refer to the period of conception, child birth and up until that baby is two years old. So, experts advise that once the physician confirms that a woman is pregnant, she must start eating balanced diets that will not only guarantee her own health, but also the health of her baby while still in the womb, and subsequently after delivery through exclusive breast-feeding in the first six months and thereafter till the baby is two years old.

Stunted, underweight and wasted

Have you seen a child that suffers from growth retardation (that is, short for his age)? Such a child is said to have a stunted growth.

Sometimes, existing side-by-side with stunted growth is the problem of underweight among children. When a child is underweight, he has low weight for his age. And when a child is described as “wasted,” it simply means he not only has a low weight for his height, he combines it with stunted growth also. Double jeopardy, you dare say.

A Professor of Human Nutrition and General Secretary, Federation of African Nutrition Scientists, Ignatius Onimawo, notes that globally, a child’s growth is recognised as an important indicator of nutritional status and health in populations, and that any child that suffers from any of these anomalies risk premature death or morbidity — that is the child may be abnormally susceptible to diseases and opportunistic infections.

Greater risk for negative indices

According to the World Health Organisation, “Children who suffer from growth retardation as a result of poor diets or recurrent infections tend to be at greater risk for illness and death.

“Stunting is the result of long-term nutritional deprivation and often results in delayed mental development, poor school performance and reduced intellectual capacity. This, in turn, affects economic productivity at national level.”

Physicians aver that during pregnancy, undernutrition can have a devastating impact on the healthy growth and development of a child. “Babies who are malnourished in the womb have a higher risk of dying in infancy and are more likely to face lifelong cognitive and physical deficits and chronic health problems,” they submit.

And for children under the age of two, nutrition scientists say undernutrition can be life-threatening. “It can weaken a child’s immune system and make him or her more susceptible to dying from common illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria,” they add.

Scarred for life

Onimawo warns that the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life is more important than what we can imagine because, he posits, “The damages that are done in the case of any of the aforementioned indices are irreparable.”

He discloses that women of short stature (stunted) are at greater risk for obstetric complications because of a smaller pelvis.

“Small women are at greater risk of delivering an infant with low birth weight, contributing to the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition, as infants of low birth weight or retarded intrauterine growth tend to be smaller as adults,” the nutrition scientists warns.

Again, the WHO says, wasting in children happens because of acute undernutrition, “usually as a consequence of insufficient food intake or a high incidence of infectious diseases, especially diarrhoea.”

Onimawo notes that wasting “impairs the functioning of the immune system and can lead to increased severity and duration of and susceptibility to infectious diseases and an increased risk for death!”

The way out

The Chief Nutrition Officer at the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Adams, advises that nourishing food, both for mother and baby, is not difficult to prepare, nor does it cost a lot of money as many people might want to assume.

To start with, Adams says, in accordance with global best practices, new mothers must breastfeed their babies exclusively for six months. By the time a baby is six months old, he should be introduced to nourishing complementary feeding, while breastfeeding continues till the baby is two years old.

She notes, “Complementary feeding becomes necessary because at six months, breast milk can no longer satisfy a baby’s dietary needs in terms of quantity and nutritional needs.

“Complementary feeding covers the period between six months and 24 months, and since this is the time that malnutrition usually starts among infants, parents must ensure that the baby gets the right food combination in regular quantities.”

Researchers say complementary foods must be rich in Vitamin A (for good vision, a healthy immune system and cell growth); iron (to aid rapid growth, prevent anaemia); calcium (for strong bones and teeth, healthy nerve and muscle function, etc); and other vitamins and minerals that a growing baby needs if he must grow into a healthy adult.

The reward

The online portal, thousanddays.org, says, “Evidence shows that the right nutrition during the 1,000-day window can:

-save more than one million lives each year;

-significantly reduce the human and economic burden of diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS;

-reduce the risk for developing various non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, and other chronic conditions later in life;

-improve an individual’s educational achievement and earning potential; and,

-increase a country’s GDP by at least 2-3 percent annually.

Are you pregnant? Now’s the time to eat nourishing foods. Husbands and everyone connected to an expectant mother must play their part by encouraging and ensuring that she eats nourishing foods. Husbands must also make adequate provisions towards achieving this goal.

Happy delivery; happy parenting!
Source@punchng.com