Compare The Nutritional Needs Of Infants And Toddlers

Young baby food supplies a good source of energy and calories need development for their growth.

Oils and Fats; For children under two years need a diet with more fat and less fibre then older children. Fat provides extra energy need at this stage of development, too much fibre will fill young children up and other more important nutrients may be left out. It's recommend not to give children processed foods as they contain high levels of saturated fats.

A healthy diet for children should be composed of 3 meals a day and a snack covering the right amount of calories for a full day and containing the following elements:

Breast milk provides all the necessary proteins, vitamins, sugar and fats essential for an infant’s growth

Toddlers will get more amounts of nutrients and energy if their diet is based on food from the five food groups. Giving a toddler 6-8 drinks a day increases their hydration. The best type of drink to give your child between meals is milk and water. Large quantities if juice can reduce your child 's appetite or cause loose stools. Some foods can cause harm to your child. Sugary, acidic drinks, and fruit juices can cause tooth decay if it is drunken frequently. Raw eggs or raw shellfish can cause food poisoning. Don 't give young children whole nuts because there is a risk that they might choke. “Toddlers who have parents, brothers or sisters who suffer from hay fever, asthma, eczema or food allergies should not have peanuts or peanut butter before they are three years old. Other nuts such as walnuts, almonds, cashew nuts are fine if they are chopped or ground or as a nut butter.”

Adding to the impact on food, when a child is young, the brain is still maturing. It is very important the child gets the protein intake one needs in order to develop

Infant nutrition is vital for growth and development. According to a Web page posted by KidsHealth, “Breast milk contains antibodies, lactose, protein, and fat…,” which are

This is exactly how Trisha Gura describes it in her review article entitled Nature’s First Functional Food. Breast milk abounds with complex carbohydrates called oligosaccharides that humans cannot digest but beneficial bacteria thrive on. These oligosaccharides were discovered fifty years ago and due to the lack of technology, scientists were unable to advance in their research and lost interest in the milk-microbe connections. Breastfeeding helps the baby fight against infections due to the macrophages and stem cells for regeneration and hundreds of thousands of bioactive molecules. Some of these bioactive molecules are fat-like and other protein-like. (Gura

An infant who is breastfed receives added health benefits compared to a child who is formula fed. In the first few days after birth, the breast milk is comprised of protein, vitamins A and E, and antibodies which help protect the infant from infection. After the first few days, the mature breast milk contains fats and cholesterol, which are essential for the growth and development of the infant’s nervous system, eyes, and brain. It also contains micronutrients calcium and magnesium, which are beneficial to the infant’s growth (Thompson et al., 2010).

Foods and their nutrients are essential to life. In the beginning years of life an infant’s nutritional health depends on the family unit. Parents must have knowledge of the changing food needs of the child and must also have sufficient resources to provide food, shelter, and clothing for the family. Equally important, parents create the cultural and psychological environment that influences the

Breastmilk is the gold standard for infant nutrition. It provides unique proteins that protect from viruses and bacteria infections, E. Coli, and salmonella. The fats found in human breastmilk are necessary for brain, eye, and nervous system development. It also contains special carbohydrates that decrease unhealthy bacteria in the stomach, helping to fight off diarrhea. Breastmilk contains the vitamins and minerals that babies need for healthy growth and development. There are also several other components, only found in human breastmilk, that are living cells that help to fight infection and illness. Breastmilk completely meets a baby’s nutrition

A lot of these problems seen in formula feed babies are due to the fact that the particular composition of the formula doesn’t suit their digestive system. Breast milk consists of the optimum proportions of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water. It is extremely digestible for a new-born baby because the milk is naturally refined to perfectly suit the baby’s digestive system. The milk also contains growth factors such as, epidermal growth factor (EGR) and insulin-like growth factor. The epidermal growth factor works by helping to prepare the lining of the gut to absorb the nutrients from the milk consumed. Insulin-like growth factor is believed to be one of the primary factors regulating early growth and development. Breast milk also contains essential fatty acids that are not present in most formula milk products. The two essential fatty acids present in breast milk are docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonis acid. Both of these play a vital role in optimal development of the central nervous system, intellectual and visual development in babies. Furthermore, one of the most prominent advantages associated with breast feeding over formula feeding babies is that, breast milk naturally changes composition to correspond to the stage of development of the infant. For example, colostrum is the name given to the first milk produced post-delivery. It has an abundance of white cells and antibodies, it also contains a

When thinking of breastfeeding, people wonder why it is important and why they should care. Over the years, there has been numerous studies that have shown that breastfeeding has a positive effect on the nutrition of a baby. Since breasts are made specifically for infants, breast milk is easier for babies to eat and digest. Therefore, there are many nutrients that are found in breast milk that are not

Breast milk is the ideal source to provide optimum nutrition for babies and it is able to transform its composition to meet a babies growing and changing nutritional needs.1 In the first few days of babies life, nutrient dense colostrum is produced to meet and infants nutrition needs and fit proportionally to their stomachs that are the size of a marble.1 Mature milk then comes in and offers nutrient dense and exceptionally bioavailable nutrients to baby that is easily digested.1 The nutrients in breast milk are ideally suited to meet a babies nutritional needs, for example a babies kidneys are relatively immature and the fairly low protein content of breast milk does not allow for an overload of nitrogen a babies kidneys.1 Breastfed babies do not need any additional fluids and the relatively low sodium levels allow for an infants hydration needs to be met while keeping the renal solute load low.1 Breast milk contains highly absorbable and balanced nutrients, the 2:1 ration of calcium to phosphate in breast milk allows for provide the optimum calcium absorbtion.1 Breast milk has optimum nutrient composition and is the ideal source of nutrition for babies for the first 6 months exclusively and with complementary food to or past 1 years of age.1

Research shows that breastfeeding and breast milk unequivocally hold many health advantages for children and mothers. Breast milk is uniquely suited to the human infant’s nutritional needs and is a live substance with unparalleled immunological and anti-inflammatory properties.