Nutrition for Infants for Preventing Future Disease - Assignment Example

How important is nutrition for INFANTS in preventing future disease? Nutrition means the ingestion, digestion and assimilation of food materials and INFANTS i.e. newborn bay from 1 to 12 months age require highly balanced nutrition for meeting their metabolic activities. Balanced nutrition provides all the major essential nutrients that are required for basic metabolism which in turn provides natural resistance power to diseases. INFANTS generally multiply their weight by at least 3 times the birth weight during the first year out of which maximum growth rate is found in the initial four months after birth.

Hence, they require maximum energy during this period for which nutrition is required. Moreover, for INFANTS, easily digestible foods only have to be recommended. In the initial stages, they require liquid food in the form of milk. Mother milk is most ideal for INFANTS as it provides essential nutrients and vitamins and body resistance to diseases. It was found that breastfed infants have better vision than that of formula-fed INFANTS (Gutierrez, 2007). In cases of non-availability of mother milk, cow milk may be provided through bottle feeding.

After 4 months, instant formula food which generally contains some cereals like wheat, rice etc. and essential minerals may be provided to INFANTS which prevent the incidence of any disease. Hence, for the prevention of diseases in INFANTS, balanced nutrition is very important. How might nutrition affect growth, development, and learning for INFANTS?The nutrition rich in dietary fatty acids like omega 3 fatty acids may help in the regulation of gene expression, intracellular communication and energy homeostasis which in turn aid in optimum growth and development and learning of INFANTS (Innis, 2011).

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children also emphasizes on the need of the breastfeeding of INFANTS up to at least 6 months and provision of complementary and nutrient-dense and micronutrient-rich foods after 6 months for better growth and development in INFANTS (Wuehler et al., 2011). Hence, nutrition certainly affects the growth, development and learning in INFANTS.