Nutrition for Health on Infancy
The first year of life is a time of extraordinary development and growth. Although development and change goes on after the first year it is at a slower rate. Even so, the accumulative results over the next decade are remarkable. And then, as the child goes in to the teenage years, the rate towards adulthood speeds up dramatically… in the coming paragraphs will examine the nutritional requirements during infancy.
|
|
Infants Energy and Nutrient Needs
At first, an infant drinks just breast milk or formula, but later starts to eat a few foods as appropriate. Commonsense in the choice of infant foods and a nurturing, relaxed environment support an infant’s health and well-being. Since infants grow rapidly during the first year, growing directly reflects nutrient uptake. This is an all important parameter in evaluating the nutritional condition of babies.
Health care professionals measure the height and weight at time intervals and compare values both standard growth for gender and age and with former measurements of every child. A healthy infant’s birth weight doubles up by about five months of age and triples by one year, usually reaching 10 to 12 kilos.
The length of an infant changes a lot slower than weight, growing about 25 cm from birth to one year. By the end of the first year growth slows down substantially; an infant generally puts on less than 5 kilos on the second year and grows about 12 cm in height.
Not only do infants grow quickly, but their basal metabolic rate is outstandingly high – about twice that of an adult, established on body weight. A newborn baby needs about 450 Calories per day, whereas most adults need about 2000 Calories per day. In terms of body weight, the difference is noteworthy. Infants require about 100Calories per kilogram of body weight per day, whereas most adults need less than 40.
Recommendations for the energy nutrients – carbohydrates, fat and protein – on the first six months of life are founded on the average intakes of healthy, full-term, fed breast milk infants. During the second six months of life recommendations reflect normal intakes from solids and breast milk.
Carbohydrates supply energy to all of the cells of the body particularly the brain (glucose). Comparative to the size of the body an infant’s brain is larger than adults and utilizes more glucose – about 60% of a day’s entire intake.
Fat in breast milk or infant formula offers most of the energy. Such high energy concentration supports the fast growth of early infancy.
No individual nutrient is more necessary to growth than protein. All of the body’s cells and most of the fluids contain protein; the basic building material of the body’s tissues. However, excessiveness of dietary protein could cause problems as could insufficient protein intake. Too much protein causes stresses to the liver and kidneys.
Signs of protein overload include acidosis, dehydration, diarrhea, raised blood ammonia, raised blood urea and feverishness. While such problems are not common, they have been detected in infants fed unsuitable foods, such as fat-free milk or concentrated formulas.
Infancy, Nutrition, Infancy and Nutrition, Infant Health
Click On Sitemap for Complete List of Articles
