Child Nutrition and Development
For a neonate, mother’s milk is the best nutrition which he can get. Hence, breastfeeding becomes an important part of the diet for the child’s proper growth. Mother’s milk has such nutrition which even the baby food fed as a supplement to mother’s milk cannot provide. Even still breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age. After 6-24 months they must be fed with “complementary food” since after 6 months of age, the milk alone is not sufficient for the child. Malnutrition due to negligence to diet during this period of growth can be very difficult to reverse. Infants and Children by the age of 21 have a growing and changing body. Due to this they nutritional needs keeps changing with their age and development of the body. A pediatric nutritionist looks after the dietary needs of infants as well as adolescents. During the prenatal stage, the growth depends completely on the mother’s nutrition.