Essay On Folic Acid In New Zealand

Children who are malnourish and vitamin A deficient are two times more likely to die compare to those receiving a vitamin A supplement. This increase in mortality rate is due to the vulnerability state of the child that caused by lack of nutrition. Moreover, the scarcity of the proper mineral and vitamins for pregnant mothers has cause more than 13 million underweight and premature births. Over the years Vitamins B, D, and C have proven to cure disease such as pellagra, rickets and scurvy and although this might seem easy fixes for the richer

Anencephaly is a congenital neurological disorder characterized by absence of the cerebrum and cerebellum, as well as the top of the skull, resulting in exposure of the brain stem. Even though the brain stem is exposed this does not mean that the babies brain or head is completely missing. This is considered one of the more serious birth defects that a baby can have because they baby will never have the brain power to grow and become an adult. Many of these babies are exposed to various infections and will only live up to one week even though some have lived up to one year at the most. Anencephalics are seen as a huge source of organ donation because they are not damaged like other babies such as babies who have been abused or babies that have been in car accidents. Many of these babies that need the organs of anencephalics are usually the ones who have heart defects. Parents such as Laura Campo heard about this type of donor possibility when she was pregnant at twenty four weeks and found out about her child being anencephalic there was no way for her to abort the baby because she was too far along. This resulted in Laura Campo going to the Florida District Court but since Laura’s baby girl who she named Theresa, by Harvard Law was not brain dead they were not allowed to use her organs for donation. The judge Estella Moriarty was begged by the family to pronounce her brain dead so they could save another child’s life but instead Theresa’s organs began to fail. Once her

Defining premature birth is much more than just a denotative phrase. It is not just a preterm birth, or a baby born early. It is a life-changing event, and something that affects millions of people worldwide. The intense quiet room with heart monitors beeping, as parents see their baby and are devastated. Loved ones can not feed them or kiss them nor, can they not hold them or hug them. They do not get the same experience as others. Little miracles lay inside these cubes where multiple wires are help keeping them alive. A place where prayers happen, and where all hope for the best. Nobody knows the true pain and struggle behind a preterm birth and it needs to be discussed. Prematurity is a serious conflict; therefore, it needs more awareness as many families are facing this tough situation.

In Canada, a clinical study by De Wals et al was performed to assess whether or not folic acid fortification has an effect on the recurrence of NTDs (neural tube defects), especially on upper and lower birth defects called spina bifida (De Wals et al., 2008). The study was performed in three different regions in Canada: the eastern, western and central provinces (De Wals et al., 2008). Furthermore, the population of the study was conducted on three different types of births which were livebirths, stillbirths, and termination of pregnancies, and the study was carried out through three periods included prefortification, partial fortification and full fortifications (De Wals et al., 2008). The researchers followed the scientific investigation

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally funded public health nutrition program that provides various services to income-eligible women, breast feeding or postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5 years old. The WIC program provides nutritional education and counseling, nutritious foods, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals if applicable to applicants. This program has been effective in the reduced rate of premature births, low birth weight babies, fetal and infant deaths, incidence of low iron (anemia), improved diet quality, increased immunization rates, increased consumption of key nutrients by pregnant women, and an increase access to earlier prenatal care.

Compare the benefits and limitations of mandatory folate fortification in Australia and discuss if it is justifiable in respect to the health of Australian women and their infants.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) The Ottawa charter aims to ‘Reduce differences in current health status and ensuring equal opportunities and resources to enable all people to achieve their fullest health potential.’ The Ottawa charter provides the framework to identify what we can do at a; local community level, state level, national government level and international organisation level (WHO). In this report the Ottawa charter will be used to demonstrate what action areas can be addressed to improve the nutrition, health and wellbeing of young children and adolesces. This report will focus on strengthening and developing each individual student’s personal skills, to help strengthen childhood and adolesces nutrition, health and wellbeing. According Better Health Victoria to Enabling developing personal schools allows ‘people to learn (throughout life) to prepare themselves for all of its stages and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is essential. This has to be facilitated in school, home, work and community

Birth defects, also known as congenital anomalies, is the second leading cause of death for infant accounted for 20.9 percent of all infant deaths in U.S in 2011 (U.S. Dept, 2016).

Premature newborns have an increased risk of complications because their bodies still have underdeveloped parts such as the lungs, digestive system, immune system, and skin. Thus, promoting oxygenation, nutrition, and fluid balance, maintaining thermal regulation, resuscitation and transferring the newborn to NICU unit will help the child to get better (Ricci el., 2017, pg. 887).

There is much debate to whether or not children should or shouldn’t be vaccinated. Every day there are many children and even adults who have died from diseases that could have been prevented before they came up. Immunizing our children is important so that they will stay healthy and so will other children around them. Children are at the most risk for developing diseases when they are growing up. They will play amongst other children and can potentially bring home germs and a common cold. Nowadays, many diseases are being eliminated since parents and their children are being vaccinated. If parents decided against vaccinating their children, there could be some serious consequences. Diseases can be spread and there can even be fatalities if the diseases were left untreated. Vaccinations are extremely important because lives would be risked every single day by many parents deciding against vaccinations for their children. They should also be mandatory for every child, even if they do not attend schools. Parents protect their children from many things; diseases should be one of them.

Low birth weight (LBW), defined as an infant weighing less than 2500g at birth, and very low birth weight (VLBW), infants <1500g, are health outcomes that themselves are indicators of future health outcomes, as well as present and future morbidity and mortality risk (“Birth Outcomes,” 2017). A large component of these associated outcomes are neurobehavioral, manifesting as impaired cognitive and language development measured in childhood, as well as lower IQ, poorer academic achievement, and reduced executive function measured later on (Aarnoudse-Moens et al., 2009; Barre et al., 2011; Hack et al., 2002; Linsell et al., 2015; Litt et al., 2012). Although decreasing in prevalence, neurosensory impairments, such as cerebral palsy, blindness,

Overall, for women 16-44 years of age, the amount of folic acid being consumed was concerningly low initially, with a mean of 102µg/day. Current recommendations provided by the NHMRC (2006) for women at child-bearing age is an intake of at least 400µg of folate per day, with a 500µg daily supplement when trying for a baby. This is particularly with the focus of avoiding the incidence of NTDs in newborn infants. The mean folic acid intake has now increased to 247 µg/day (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). In the past, mandatory fortification has also been under scrutiny for reaching those at greatest risk of producing Neural Tube Defects and to be less able to access foods fortified with folate acid, such as pregnant teenagers and Indigenous populations (Baker et al., 2009; Harrison et al., 2007). However, recent data indicates otherwise, likely as the food fortification occurs to bread which is a relatively affordable and available food eaten by most Australians (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). Pregnant teenagers gave birth to 54.8% less NTD-effected children after mandatory folic acid fortification. A rate of 74% less NTDs amongst Indigenous women is an even more substantial decline of NTD occurrence, since folic acid fortification of breads became

Folate is a natural occurrence in foods such as beans and pulses (e.g. lentils and chickpeas), leafy green vegetables, broccoli, spinach, tuna and oranges (Tiran, 2000). Some foods are also fortified with folic acid such as cereals and bread. Late in the 1990’s United State scientists came to the realisation that despite the availability of folic acid in supplements as well as foods available in the supermarkets, people were still finding it a challenge to meet their daily folate requirement; with this in mind the United States of America implemented the folate fortification program (Latimes.com). For women of childbearing age, folic acid consumption needed to be increased so in January of 1998 the United States food and drug administration authorised a folic acid fortification of all products containing grain. The

Baby Theresa is a very unique case. Theresa Ann Campo Pearson was an infant born in Florida 1992, with Anencephaly, which is where the two most important parts of the brain are missing, the cerebrum and cerebellum, as well as the top of the skull. Without these parts of the brain she would never have had higher brain functions or consciousness. However, there is still a brain stem connected so all the autonomic functions are still working, such as having a heart beat and breathing. Anencephaly is known as one of the worst congenital disorders, thus these cases are usually detected during pregnancy and aborted. If not aborted, half are stillborn or if born alive, they usually die within a few days. In

With the remarkable improvement of people’s living standard, abundant nutritious food has caused non-communicable diseases become incredibly common nowadays, which globally causes 63% of death and it is going to continuously increase in the future. (citedO) It is necessary for people to start to attach great importance to eating habit in their daily lives. This report is about the role of public health dietitians including the organisations they work in, what they do, who they usually work with, what health problems they need to deal with, and more importantly, how do they contribute to the health system and how they will play a more important role in New Zealand’s health system in the future.