Child Development and Public Health

I chose nutrition/malnutrition. The topic is meaningful to me because, nutrition is the biggest part of a child's growth and development. Without the proper nutrition a child could have a small birth rate, have development delays, deadly illnesses, and brain abnormalities.

In India, children under age 5 die every year due to malnutrition and diarrhea. In 1993 the Government of India , the National Nutrition Policy was adopted to help pregnant mothers and children to receive the maximum of nutrition. the policy was set in place to monitor the need for good nutrition and malnutrition prevention. It is more common for children to be malnourished in Sub-Saharan Africa because of poor healthcare services, bad hygiene practices, and quality of care concerns for the children and expecting mother. Girls have a lower social status in India, which put them more at risk that boys.Malnourished children perform at a lower rate in school and the consequences affects the child's motor, sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development. Vitamin, mineral, iodine and vitamin A deficiency is a major public health problem because these all affect the child's development and survival rate in India (The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust, 2011).

The information that I have learned that may impact my future work as a educator, is that in order for a child to be able to survive to get the next level of development in cognitive, motor, sensory, social and emotional development, it need to start with good nutrition, hygiene, self awareness, healthcare services, preventative measures and knowledge.

Reference

The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust. (2011). Mother and Child Nutrition. Mother infant and young child nutrition and malnutrition. Retrieved from http://motherchildnutrition.org/malnutrition/index.html