Parents Need To Be Educated In The Proper Nutrition

All expecting parents need to be educated in the proper nutrition for an infant. This causes these soon-to-be new parents to seek new information and acquire new knowledge which differs from their current education on nutrition. Many people know the proper nutrition for adults however, few know the proper nutrition for an infant. However, knowing the proper nutrition does not necessarily mean that the parents are at a socioeconomic level that would allow them to acquire those nutrients. This also raises a separate issue of those who know the proper information but do not have the means.

The first and easiest issue to combat are parents who are uninformed on the proper nutrition for their child. With such specialization in the medical field today, they are professionals whose main goal is to teach people about proper nutrition for themselves and/or the child. Thankfully, in this age of technology, people who cannot afford to speak with a dietician can seek out information on the internet. There are several valuable resources that can be found very quickly and easily that way.

One recent push is that the pregnant mother should increase her fruit and vegetable intake. According to Storey and Anderson, “These authors do cite research supporting fruit and vegetable intake throughout pregnancy as a decreased risk for a variety of maternal and infant medical conditions” (Chapman-Novakofski, 2017). This result is reasonable in the sense that one would expect that a healthier mother would contribute to having a healthier child. There are obviously many factors that contribute to maternal and infant medical conditions, however, being healthy will never hurt. Pregnancy can be an extremely stressful and crazy time for both the mother and father. At the same time, they need to make sure that they do not overlook their eating habits during this time. The choices they make during this time may be reinforced after-birth. This could be a bad habit such as eating fast food more or eating less fruit and vegetables due to cravings.

Socioeconomic issues can play a huge role in infant nutrition and of the nutrition of the mother. In a poor community, there are many individuals who cannot afford proper nutrients. For instance, there are many people who rely on the affordability of fast food to feed their families. Therefore, how would these people be able to afford the nutrients necessary to keep the mother and the infant healthy? The reality is that many have to sacrifice some needed foods. Healthy foods need to become affordable so that those in lower-income areas can provide their children with the proper vegetables. One possible idea to help this change is to switch some food stamp money into a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. A CSA is a program where you purchase a share of a farm for the year and in exchange you get a portion of the amount of vegetables they grow throughout that season (USDA, 2017). Switching some of the food stamp money to a program like this would allow parents to make meals that contain healthy and nutritious vegetables. This would not only improve the nutrition of the children but also that of the parents.

That solution would be perfect for those near a farm but that would simply not be enough for those inner-city families whose parents either walk to work or use public transportation to get around. However, a possible solution could be to subsidize farms to bring their CSA or Farmer’s Market vegetables to the city in order for the previous idea to work for those inner-city families. Cost and affordability are arguably the main causes of obesity and fixing these two issues would be the best step to fixing America’s obesity problem. This would in part also improve nutritional values for generations to come.

One of the more interesting recent revelations in the study of nutrition is the fact that newborns do not seem to need vitamin D. It does have benefits, however, people used to believe that it was a crucial vitamin that newborns needed in order to develop properly. Many people thought it was necessary to spend hours outside or eat foods such as fish or other fatty foods in order to ingest vitamin D. However, that is simply not the case. A study by Almeida et al., showed no correlation between the amount of vitamin D intake and the subsequent development of that child. This shows that nutrition will change and adapt over time. Thus, parents who continue to procreate need to attempt to re-educate themselves on nutrition for each subsequent child.

Another issue regarding infant nutrition are those parents previously mentioned who do not re-educate themselves. In a middle class or wealthy family, that might not be the worst problem. In those classes, the child may still get all the other important nutrients it needs in order to be healthy and fully develop. Vitamin D, for instance, is not harmful and absorbing the amounts people used to believe was necessary would not hurt the child so long as it receives the other nutrients. Where this could become an issue however, is with lower class families. As previously stated, these families do not necessarily have the income in order to buy healthy foods that will give the child those needed nutrients. Believing that vitamin D is still extremely important could lead one of those families to aim their meals towards vitamin D and similar nutrients while not being able to afford foods that could be more crucial to the child’s development. Those families need to be up to date with what is most important for their newborn to have in their body in order for them to budget correctly.

Being educated is the main key in insuring that an infant will develop healthy. There are many different ways in which one can be properly educated. This could come in the way of parenting classes or speaking to your doctor (or eventually pediatrician). However, it could also come in the form of self-research. This is easily done due to the internet and the vast number of resources available via health agencies or the government. The next main key is making sure that the infant has access to the right nutrients. Keeping up with one’s education on nutrition is key to ensure that the child will receive the right amount of nutrients. Lastly, making sure the child has access to those right nutrients is important. Obviously, all the research in the world would be useless unless it can be put to proper implementation. In this case, making sure lower-class families have access to fresh fruits and vegetables would be a huge step in the right direction. Those who do not have ample access to healthy foods are more likely to fall by the wayside in terms of nutrition.