Healthy Nutrition's Role in the Development of Children Aged 0-5

This essay discusses the importance of healthy nutrition in young children aged 0-5 years for their healthy development. It highlights that adequate nutrition during infancy and childhood is crucial for growth, well-being, and reaching full potential. Poor nutrition increases the risk of illness and contributes to a significant portion of child deaths. The essay reviews literature emphasizing the link between poor nutrition and developmental issues, academic potential, and economic inequalities. It further discusses the role of a balanced diet including grains, dairy, proteins, and fruits for children's brain development, attentiveness, and memory. The methodology used involves a search strategy utilizing databases like PubMed and PMC, and both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The essay concludes that socio-economic status, food security, maternal education, and overall well-being are key determinants of nutritional status in children, recommending interventions like nutritional education in preschool settings and promoting the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and legumes while limiting salt, fat, and sugar intake.

Importance of healthy nutrition in young
children aged 05 years in healthy
development

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................3
Search strategy.............................................................................................................................3
Database used...............................................................................................................................3
Research choice...........................................................................................................................3
Research method..........................................................................................................................3
RESULTS/DISCUSSION...............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Having enough amount of nutrition during the childhood and infancy is generally
important to ensure the growth, well-being as well as development of an infant to their full
potential as well. The poor nutrition generally enhances the risk of developing illness as well as
is mainly responsible both directly and indirectly for about one third of an estimated 9 million
deaths which had occurred in the year 2006 among children who are generally less than 5 years
of age group. Having an in appropriate nutrition can ultimately lead to having obesity among
childhood that is specifically an enhancing public well-being concern within various countries. It
is quite essential to have knowledge about healthy nutrition as consisting the poor diet within the
early childhood can significantly lead towards the deficiencies in having the important nutrient
and vitamins as well. In this, the essay will cover the causes of the lack of healthy nutrition
among young children having age group 05 years in the healthy development. An early
nutritional impairments can also be connected with the long-term damage in growth and well-
being. Along with this, there is also a discussion about the impacts of healthy nutrition among
the young age children mainly 05 years that can effectively enhance their well-being to improves
their development (Liming and Grube, 2018).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review can presents a systematic as well as main procedures of gathering the
secondary information which is related with the topic. There are multiple secondary resources
like books, articles, online Journals and publications as well that are specific to the topic. The
main aim of developing the literature review is to simply identify the main research gaps within
the primal investigation. Here, the main gap in this is the impacts of having healthy nutrition
among young childhood age such as 05 years. In the past studies, there were lack of information
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about how absence of healthy nutrition can affect the early growth and development of a child in
UK. This is the main gap and to overcome this, there are some effective interventions or
strategies to reduce the causes and impacts of lack of healthy nutrition among childhood mainly
among 05 age years and enhances their growth and development in a healthier manner.
As per the view of Joanna Goldthorpe, Nazneen Ali and Rachel Calam (2018), having
poor nutrition and lack of early learning chances can significantly contribute towards the loss of
developmental as well as academic potential and can lead to a lifelong well-being as well as
economic inequalities in more than about 200 million children generally aged above 5 years. It
is identified that the early provision of an optimal nutrition as well as the opportunities for
learnings is generally been associated to a positive early development of a child results. As per
early development of a child, it mainly refers to an early childhood with a strong concentration
on the first two to three years of a life as well as can define the stepwise development of the
sensory-motor, the cognitive-language as well as the social and emotional capacities that are
shaped by connections among the environment, genetics and experiences as well. The nutrition
for the children is generally based on the similar core principles as the nutrition for young and
older adults. In this, the main key is to proper nutrition is generally a healthy as well as an
appropriate balance of exercise, diet and a conducive lifestyle as well. The five main food
groups can involve the grains, dairy, proteins, and fruits and are specifically the good starting
point for the diet of every children. In this, having a portion of these such food ingredients, will
greatly depend over the age group, genetic make-up as well as the physical activities. It is
generally essential to understand every food ingredient in order to develop or enhance a well-
balanced as well as a nutritious diet for a child. Providing a healthy food among the young
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children age group can significantly nourishes the human brain as the brain can consume more
energy than any of the other organs within the body.
Everything associated with learning, attentiveness as well as the memory, all are greatly
influenced by the type of food a child can consume during their childhood. In addition to this,
consuming a healthy eating within the early childhood can even yield more benefits which are
only measurable later in life. It is known that, the brain of the young children can rapidly
develop, generally require a nutrient-dense diet to aid them as they can effectively process the
world around them. Without having the right nutrients, the preschoolers and toddlers can
specifically struggles to develop the effective skills in order to maintain the concentration, that
can becomes an enhancing essential as they get older. Furthermore, the author has found that
there are various benefits of physical of having proper nutrition such as it can provide the
children with more energy in order to live their life with full potential, can protect against the
malnourished, maintains the immune system as well as can prevents the obesity and effectively
decreases the risk of having chronic illness. In addition to this, some of the essential nutrients for
the children can involve calcium which can strengthen the bones and is generally found in
yoghurt, milk and seeds as well (Providing healthy diets for young children: the experience of
parents in a UK inner city, 2018).
METHODOLOGY
Search strategy
The search strategy is important to collect the information as well as data which is linked
with the chosen topic which is based on healthy nutrition among the young age children mainly
05 years. For collecting the information and its selection that is linked with the chosen topic is
mainly based on various websites. Therefore, there are various websites and the search engines
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that are available in which the most reliable articles are selected for the review to choose and
collect some of the additional data for the chosen article. Furthermore, PubMed and PMC is
selected as a major aspects of information and the data gathering platform that is validated for
the study process. In this, both PubMed and PMC are generally considered as a high source of
the information which is quite helpful for collecting the information that is required for the study.
Database used
The database is generally used in various aspects like for an accurate collection and
selection of the information. The databases are also used to provide an aspects which is linked
with the given topic as well as it is quite appropriate for the information selection and collection
as well. Both PubMed and PMC are central and is generally a big database which is used to
collect the information and data regarding the impacts and causes of healthy nutrition among the
young age children mainly 05 years.
Research choice
In context with research procedure, there are the mixed choices which are generally taken
within the research. In this, there are both the research such as quantitative and qualitative
methods are being used within the research process which can aid to collect an effective
information. The qualitative research can deal with the words and characteristics with having a
non-numerical data whereas, the quantitative methods can specifically deals with numeric and
statistical that can provide calculations such as prevalence and many more.
Research method
The research method which is used within the report is both the primary and secondary
research methods. The primary research methods can be simply defined as collecting effective
information for the first time through interviews or having face to face conversations, whereas,
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the secondary research method can specifically concentrate on the past studies which is already
being done. Furthermore, the review of process is generally used to undertaken for the
explanation of the information as well as the data.
RESULTS/DISCUSSION
While talking about the healthy nutrition for children, the household socio-economic
status generally remains to be an essential determinant of the nutritional status of the children.
The children who are living in the low economic conditions generally had a worse nutritional
status as compared with the children who are living in high economic conditions. Therefore,
while low economic situations are the strong health determinant of malnutrition among the
young children, it can not be true for the preschoolers. It is determined by the study that poverty
is a predictive component towards the poor nutrition among the young children age group of 5
years but not to the nutritional results among the preschooler. On other hands, the component
such as the household insecurity of food, the low maternal education as well as the poor well-
being are generally the stronger predictors for the malnutrition among preschooler and young
children as well. Furthermore, along with the elevated prevalence of malnutrition, the over-
nutrition conditions may also seen among the children within the communities across UK.
Mostly the obese category children is generally attributed towards an excessive consumption of
calories as well as the low calorie expenditure. Having an enhanced consumption of more
energy-dense, the low nutrients food with having elevated sugar levels as well as saturated fats,
collaboratively with low-physical activity, generally have led to an enhancement in the rates of
obesity (Kutralam-Muniasamy et. al., 2020).
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CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that there are generally enhanced prevalence
of malnutrition and overnutrition among the children who are living in low economic conditions
whereas, the children who are living in high economic conditions generally involve low rates of
fall under malnutrition and overnutrition. In this, the security of food, the socio-economic
capacity, availability of health services, the environmental sanitation as well as the geographical
inequalities in terms of economic improvements are generally some of the components which
must be considered in formulating as well as prioritizing within the nutritional programs for the
young children who are under 05 years age group.
RECOMMENDATION
The parents can play a central role within the eating habits of their child. Therefore, as
various young children can regularly attend the childcare, preschool settings are generally an
ideal for supporting a child to eat a healthy food. In order to prevent the specific illnesses, the
public health interventions can supports a preschool settings to effectively promote a healthy
eating, in particular to enhance the consumption of vegetables and fruits. As an outcome of this,
most of the day care settings are needed to integrate some of the effective nutritional education
within the preschool curriculum as well. In context with nutritional curriculum programs within
the early years settings educate the day care staff, children and the parents about the nutritional
values of food. The nutritional educational programs can vary in duration from few weeks to
various months and they are usually aim to enhance the consumption of the familiar fruits and
vegetables. It is recommended for the children who are under age group of 5 years that they must
include fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds and many more in their daily consumption
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of food ingredients. The children must limit the consumption of salt content, fatty and sugary
component, the low-fibre food products and many more to avoid the prevalence of illness
(Rosenberg et. al., 2018).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Aschemann-Witzel, J., Gantriis, R.F., Fraga, P. and Perez-Cueto, F.J., 2021. Plant-based food
and protein trend from a business perspective: markets, consumers, and the challenges
and opportunities in the future. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 61(18),
pp.3119-3128.
Chow, C.Y., Riantiningtyas, R.R., Kanstrup, M.B., Papavasileiou, M., Liem, G.D. and Olsen, A.,
2020. Can games change children’s eating behaviour? A review of gamification and
serious games. Food Quality and Preference, 80, p.103823.
Fang, K., Mu, M., Liu, K. and He, Y., 2019. Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A
systematic review and meta‐analysis. Child: care, health and development, 45(5),
pp.744-753.
Janssen, M., 2018. Determinants of organic food purchases: Evidence from household panel
data. Food quality and preference, 68, pp.19-28.
Kotloff, K.L., Riddle, M.S., Platts-Mills, J.A., Pavlinac, P. and Zaidi, A.K., 2018.
Shigellosis. The Lancet, 391(10122), pp.801-812.
Kutralam-Muniasamy, G., Pérez-Guevara, F., Elizalde-Martínez, I. and Shruti, V.C., 2020.
Branded milks–Are they immune from microplastics contamination?. Science of the
Total Environment, 714, p.136823.
Liming, K.W. and Grube, W.A., 2018. Wellbeing outcomes for children exposed to multiple
adverse experiences in early childhood: A systematic review. Child and Adolescent
Social Work Journal, 35(4), pp.317-335.
Rosenberg, A.M., Maluccio, J.A., Harris, J., Mwanamwenge, M., Nguyen, P.H., Tembo, G. and
Rawat, R., 2018. Nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, agricultural diversity,
food access and child dietary diversity: Evidence from rural Zambia. Food Policy, 80,
pp.10-23.
Sadruddin, A.F., Ponguta, L.A., Zonderman, A.L., Wiley, K.S., Grimshaw, A. and Panter-Brick,
C., 2019. How do grandparents influence child health and development? A systematic
review. Social Science & Medicine, 239, p.112476.
Twenge, J.M., Hisler, G.C. and Krizan, Z., 2019. Associations between screen time and sleep
duration are primarily driven by portable electronic devices: Evidence from a
population-based study of US children ages 0–17. Sleep medicine, 56, pp.211-218.
Online:
Providing healthy diets for young children: the experience of parents in a UK inner city, 2018
[Online] Available through:
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6041821/#S0004title>
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