Public Health Issue

I chose the Public Health issue Nutrition/Malnutrition.  This issue of nutrition is important to me as an early childhood classroom teacher.  Children need the right balance of nutrients to develop physically, cognitively and emotionally.  Children that are malnourished and hungry will not be able to concentrate on anything but being hungry.  Children that are being fed non healthy foods that are high in sugar, fat and empty calories may feel full but these are the wrong foods for healthy development. “Preschool children maybe a greater nutritional risk than children of any other age, because it is easy to satisfy their smaller appetites with unhealthy foods, leaving no room for nutrition they need.” (Berger,2012).  I do understand that this is an issue for families with low socioeconomic status and families in poverty.  These families are choosing cheaper food because healthier food may be more expensive.  In our classrooms we were seeing it more and more every year.  Lots and lots of prepackaged foods, cookies, cakes, and fruit packed in high sugar fructose syrups.  We are working so hard as a school to promote healthy eating and good nutrition.  We provide morning and afternoon snack to our children.  We completely stopped serving juice and switched to water.  We always served milk.  The children are bringing enough juice boxes in their lunch.  We have a curriculum that we put into place two years ago called Healthy Habits.  This curriculum teaches the children about “sometimes and anytime foods”.  We expose the children to better and healthier food choices.  While at the same time working with our parents to help make healthier chooses. 

According to UNICEF: Nutrition/Malnutrition in India:

·         In India 20 percent of children under five suffer from wasting due to acute under nutrition

·         43 percent of children under 5 are underweight

·         48 percent are stunted

·         India accounts for more than 3 out of every 10 stunted children in the world

·         Under nutrition is more common for children of mothers who are undernourished themselves

·         India has the highest number of low birth weight babies

·         70 percent of children ages 6-59 months are anemic. 

·         Only one half of the households use adequately iodized salt

·         Only 25 percent of newborns are breastfed within the first hour of birth

·         Less than half of children under 6 months are exclusively breastfed

·         Only 20 percent of children age 6-59 months are fed correctly according to the recommended proper feeding of young child feeding. 

·         Women that are under nourished and uneducated raise children that are under nourished.  (UNICEF.org)

“Anemia in young children can be related to impaired cognitive performance, behavioral and motor development, coordination, language development, and school achievement.” (UNICEF.org) 

I can relate this information to my future work with children and families through child and parent education.  While in my community here in Orlando Florida there may not be children as malnourished as those in India but there are children that are not receiving the appropriate vitamins, minerals and nutrients for healthy growth and development. 

References:

Berger, S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

http://www.unicef.org/india/nutrition.html