Essay On Malnutrition In Infants

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Malnutrition in infants Malnutrition or undernutrition is known as an imbalance between nutrition requirements and intake that results in increase deficits of energy, protein or micronutrients that may has negatively affect in growth, development, and other relevant outcomes (1). Malnutrition contributes about 7.26 million deaths of infants annually, which is associated to inappropriate feeding during first year of life. Malnourished children who survive are more frequently sick, and usually suffer from impaired development (2). The causes of malnutrition go far beyond simply lacking food. It's a combination of complicated factors that relate to: poverty, political context, climate change, feeding practices, disease, contaminated water, poor…show more content…
Likewise, the appropriate time of first bites of food is very important for development and growth and may prevent the malnutrition. Moreover, solid, semi-solid and soft foods should be included to infant’s diet at 6 months to prevent undernutrition with taking consideration of that children receive all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients they need to grow, and stay healthy. Nevertheless, many parents introduce their children to solid foods before the recommended age of 6 months and often as early as 3 or 4 months of age. However, there is no added benefit to this practice; evidence suggests that these early foods provide no growth advantage over exclusive breastfeeding. Instead, introducing solid foods too early may increase infants’ exposure to pathogens and result in early weaning, depriving the child of the critical benefits of breastmilk up to 6 months of age and beyond. The evidence is clear that exclusive breastfeeding provides all the nutrients infants need to grow and thrive during their first six months of life. There is also some evidence to suggest that introducing solid foods very early (at or before 4 months) may increase the risk of becoming overweight in childhood

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