Building blocks of health

Every parent should know the right nutrients required for their child to stay healthy. As parents all we want is for our children grow up to be strong and healthy.

Right from the time they are born, we take utmost care to ensure our child gets the right kind of food and nutrition. Mothers spend a lot of time preparing delicious food because we are all led to believe that a home cooked meal will provide the child all the nutrition it needs.

This is not entirely wrong! However, while home meals provide the child with the necessary macronutrients such as fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etc, it can be low on the much-required micronutrients such as iron, zinc, vitamin B2 etc.

Let us delve deeper into what micronutrients are and why they are so important for a growing baby? Micronutrients are essentially vitamins and minerals.

They are only required in small amounts but play an important role in human development and wellbeing including the regulation of metabolism, heartbeat and bone density.

Lack of the required amounts of micronutrients can lead to stunted growth in children and increased risk for various diseases in adulthood.

Without proper consumption of micronutrients children can suffer from rickets (lack of vitamin D), scurvy (lack of vitamin C), anemia (lack of iron), etc.

Proper intake of vitamins and minerals can mean the difference between a healthy, productive life, and a life fraught with illness.

Micronutrient deficiency is commonly referred to as ‘Hidden Hunger’ because it develops gradually over time and the devastating impact is not seen until irreversible damage is done.

While a child may go to sleep every night with a full stomach, micronutrient deficiency means that his/her body is still hungry for ‘Good Nutrition’.

More than 2 billion people worldwide suffer from hidden hunger. According to the Rapid Survey on Children, 2013-14, around 40 per cent of India’s children under the age of five are stunted (low height-for-age), nearly 15 per cent are wasted (low weight-for-height) and 30 per cent are underweight (low weight-for-age).

Commenting on the nutritional intake for a child, Dr Jyothi Chabria, Senior Consultant Dietician and Nutritionist, Women's Care Clinic stated, “The nutritional needs of an infant from age six months onwards can no longer be met with breast milk alone.

To ensure adequate energy and nutrients, an infant’s diet must be gradually expanded to include complementary foods. These foods should provide sufficient energy, protein and micronutrients to cover a child's energy and nutrient gaps, so that together with breast milk, they meet all his or her needs.”

“However, locally available foods may have inadequate nutritional quality and provide insufficient amounts of certain key nutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin B6. Introduction of micronutrient-rich foods in the diet is the answer to combat micronutrient malnutrition. Fortified foods or micronutrient supplements can fill some of the critical nutrient gaps.” added Dr Chabria.

When we talk about nutritional deficiencies we automatically consider it to be a problem of the poor or of rural India. However, nutritional deficiencies are quite prevalent in urban India as well and not because of the want of food but due to lack of awareness of proper nutritional intake during infant age. Hence parents should be completely aware of the right nutrients required for their child to avoid long term health issues.