Prenatal Growth

Michelle, R.A., (2013) The effects of maternal nutrition on fetal psychological development. International Journal of Childbirth Education.28.3:p90.

Nutrition is important to understand because it is a significant contributor to the health and wellness of a human being. Nutrition can determine the weight of a person, the performance of organs and the body’s ability to prevent or accelerate certain diseases. Health and nutrition can be influenced by several factors such as family, friends, peers as well as physical and mental stress. As a young child, the immediate family is the biggest influence on nutrition because they are the first role models and establish the initial habits that the individual will develop. Through daily meal plans given to children, they can develop a standard of care in regard to nutrition and then incorporate key food groups into their daily diet. A child’s

Since the beginning of time, the birth of a baby was a sign of a new life, and within today’s society, many of those lives start within a hospital with the assistance of different medical staff. Now, every family and parent is different in regards to the upbringing of their future child well before their birth, and in order to protect and support this idea; different programs were established within Canada. The Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program which was established in 1995 can be considered one, as they work to provide support to the health and wellbeing of pregnant women within different communities. Within their program some prominent goals mentioned are: to improve maternal-infant health, increase birth weight rate, and promote breastfeeding

The New England Medical Journal wrote a report that this was the first generation where the children will not outlive their parents. The magnitude of this study should be enough to cause a change in the general’s eating habits. The leading cause of childhood sickness is obesity. Making a conservative effort to change the way American’s think about food will significantly affect the health of the public. It takes minimal effort to make a change but like with any bad habit takes a strong will and mind. Making small changes in diet can begin a tidal wave of good habits that last throughout the rest of one’s life. Life is far too short to die eating a hamburger, make a change for the better of the future. By teaching children the benefits of healthy eating habits will decrease the chances of them becoming obese. Moreover, having to deal with the health complications that come along with it. Making the valiant effort to nourish the body from the inside out will create a more fulfilling, healthy life, that is free of obesity and

The childhood development of the individual followed the normal development patterns that are expected. In the childhood stage the individual development changed rapidly and their ability to be active and learn new skills improves on a daily basis. During childhood a child will grow steadier compared to an infant. A child’s body and organs size grows at a steady pace. By the age of 6 a child’s head will be 90% of a full adult size even though the rest of a child’s body has a lot more to grow and to develop. Until a child reaches late childhood, and entering adolescence, an individual’s reproductive organs are still not fully developed. Infants and children can suffer from delayed development. This could cause potential effects

During pregnancy that are existing factors that can affect the development of the foetus and that can bring health and other problems when the child is born, which the child can carry for the rest of her/his life, these

Things happened during these critical periods can create long lasting or irreversible impacts to a person’s health. For an instance, breastfeeding has plentiful benefits during infancy and childhood, and children who are exclusively breastfed are less vulnerable for obesity compared to formula-fed children (Musingarimi, 2008). World Health Organization (WHO) identifies that diets in early life is one if the deciding factors for the development of adulthood diseases (WHO, 2013).

When thinking of public health in regards specifically to obesity, a study into maternal obesity and the long-term health of the offspring, found that ‘maternal obesity has been associated with a number of long-term adverse health outcomes in the offspring, including lifelong risk of obesity and metabolic dysregulation with increased insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, as well as behavioural problems and risk of asthma’ (O’Reilly et al, 2012:1), this highlights to us the implications not just to mother, but the long term effects to her child.

A key factor of health in later life is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a medical condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. Medical conditions are not the only factor which causes children to be obese it is the parental/family influences as well. Family influences on children are a huge factor because when children are younger they eat what the parent’s eats which can determine what the child ends up eating.

If there are siblings and one of them becomes obese, there is a chance of 40% of the other one becoming obese. In married couples, if one of them gets obese, there is a 37% chance of the other spouse becoming obese. If one or both parents are obese, the possibility of their child to be obese is greater. It was shown that what families do, who they spend their time with, what they eat and how their family structure is generally, affects the child’s diet. A child is to learn from their parents, if their parents are obese, that’s what they’ll probably

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

(16) a baby's birth-weight is dependent on sufficient nutrition throughout gestation, newer studies suggest under-nutrition causes compensatory growth, which preserves full growth of some tissues and sacrifice others. This leads to programming and altered gene expression affecting metabolism and physiological settings. The systems which have been observed to be affected by programming in adulthood include the immune system, neuro-endocrine settings and stem cell quality increasing risk of diabetes type 2, hypertension and heart disease.

Pregnancy is a basic time of versatility whereby fetal improvement might be fundamentally affected by natural components, for example, maternal supplements and hormones, and in addition the acquired hereditary profile. There is a solid potential for these elements to apply an enduring effect on the posterity's development and wellbeing into adulthood.

Parents shape their children’s dietary practices, physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and ultimately their weight status. According to Lindsay, Ana C., et al., “Parents knowledge of nutrition, their influence over food selection, meal structure, and home eating patterns are all influential in their children’s development of lifelong habits that contribute to normal or to overweight and obesity” (170). Because children have little power and control over their own choice, they are largely dependent on others, mainly their parents. The parents’ food preferences, variety of foods in the home, eating behavior, and the parents’ physical activity patterns work in relation to establish an environment in which obesity may or may not be encouraged. In regard to obesity, parents have a responsibility and play the primary role in influencing and controlling their child’s

Pregnant mothers require greater energy inputs and when these requirements are sufficient because of poor diets, long-term diseases in offspring develop (Langley-Evans, 2006). Fetal developmental periods are critical to human life as a majority of the epigenetic programming events take place during this time. Maternal under-nutrition during critical periods (fetal programming) is an important predictor of obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (Lakshmy, 2013). The underlying “fetal programming” hypothesis indicates that during critical periods of fetal development, changes in the prenatal environment cause the differential expression of genes affecting offspring phenotype later on (Lakshmy, 2013).The Barker’s Early Origins Hypothesis states that unfavourable fetal growth and poor nutrition may contribute to and increases risk of chronic disease because under-nutrition in prenatal environments alters the fetuses’ body structure, physiology and metabolism (Vaiserman, 2014). This concept is present in current North American populations with the growing obesity epidemic due to excessive carbohydrate and sugar intake during gestation. Understanding the epigenetic modulation of maternal nutrition on offspring health is essential as chronic disease rates are increasing in most of the developing and industrialized nations.