Nutritional needs of infants (age 0 to 3)

Introduction

Anyone who spend time with babies recognizes that they grow and change almost before your eyes, in the span of 12months, most infant learn to sit up, cut many teeth, start to crawl, move from crawling to walking, begin to communicate verbally, and triple their body weight at no other time in the child’s life will he/she again experience such rapid growth and development. Good nutrition is the key to ensuring that growth and development proceeds optimally. Infants require all the essential vitamin and minerals and also need adequate amount of calories and proteins. If moms are able, exclusive breastfeeding is the preferred source of nutrition for the first six months of the baby’s life. As the baby develops the physical skills necessary to eat solid food, simple and hypoallergic food, can be introduced slowly and continued breastfeeding can fill in any nutritional gap.

Types of nutrient needs of infants

Nutritional needs of infant are food infant needs for healthy growth and development. They are various forms of nutrient needed by the infant for healthy growth and development which are listed below

Energy and macronutrient

Like all human beings at all stages of life, infants need adequate calories to support rapid growth and development and a healthy supply of macronutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates and fats to thrive during the critical period.

A healthy supply means the right amount because our consumption and excess intake of macronutrients can be just problematic for infants as under consumption and deficiency. Quality is also very important and sometimes overlooked in the feeding of infants and children, during the first year of life; breastfeeding is usually the best path of nourishment for an infant, with very few supplemental foods needed to provide healthy supply of macronutrients. This period of breastfeeding also places a unique emphasis on the mother’s diet. The quality of a mother’s milk depends in great part upon the mother’s diet, not only with respect to macronutrients but also to vitamins, minerals phytonutrients and potentially problematic food components.

Calories intake

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies set a dietary reference intake (DRI) daily calorie range for infants from birth to six months of 520 to 570 and 676 to 743 calories for infant between six and twelve months of age depending on gender. If care givers are sensitive to their infants innate satiety signals, infants will naturally adjust their intake to meet their own energy needs, this is the perfect time to cultivate your baby’s ability to self-regulate by honoring his/her hunger and satiety cuss, formula fed infants typically consume more calories and experience greater weight gram that breast fed infants.

One study suggests that babies who were introduced to whole foods (vegetables and fruits as well as cooked meats and fish and home prepared meals) had healthier body composition than infant fed store, bought prepared baby food. In another study , introducing solid food to formula fed infants before four months was associated with six fold increase in the odds of obesity at age three. No association was found in breastfed infants, the best advice  for getting your baby’s energy needs that is to pay attention to hunger and satiety cues , monitor  growth and weight gain and food your nutrient –rich whole foods when he/she takes an interest in eating solid foods.

Protein

Protein is essential infants tissue replacement and growth, as such protein requirement are higher are higher per kilogram of weight than for older children and adults, during the first year of life, dietary reference intake for daily protein intake ranges between 9 and 13 grams per day, breast milk or formula will be the primary source of protein in the first six months of life and then be supplemented with high quality food sources of protein such as fish, yogurt, pureed meat and eggs.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are primary source of fuel infant and if sufficient amounts are not provided growth may be stunted because protein will be used meet the energy needs, when introducing solid foods focus on foods with complex. Carbohydrates such as mashed or pureed vegetables, fruit and whole grain cereal.

Fat and fatty acid quality

Fats supply infants with energy for their liver, brain and heart. The current recommendation for infants younger than age one is to consume a minimum of 30 grams of fat per day this amount is easily provided in the milk produced by a healthy mom and consumed by a regularly breastfeedinginfants.

The quality and type of fat consumed during infancy is also important, the dietary reference intake recommendation include a suggested daily intake of at least 4.5grams of the omega -6 essential fatty acid. This amount can often be provided in human milk without a special careful attention to the diet on the part of a nursing mom however the DRI recommendation of one half gram intake of linolenic acid, an omega 3fatty acid may not be as easily met by a nursing mom without more careful attention to her personal meal plan.

The omega 3 fatty acid may known as DHA (docosahexaeonic acid) plays a critical role in neurological development and visual acuity, evidence from several studies suggest that changes in brain concentration of DHA are associated with changes in cognitive and behavioral performance in infant and toddlers. Studies on maternal DHA intake provide evidence that moms who consume more fish have higher breast milk concentration. In 2008 a team of 19 informational experts developed recommendation based on research on infant development and fatty acids concluded that DHA should be added to infant formula with that in mind, it makes sense for nursing mothers to include at least one source of omega 3 fats in their diet every day, in a serving size that provides closer to 1-2 grams of omega- 3 fatty acid. This amount can be found in 2-4 ounces of salmon or halibut, 5-10 walnut halves, or 2-4 teaspoon of ground flaxseed mother who are unable to or choose not to breast feed should select an infant formula that contain omega 3 essential fatty acid.

Micronutrient

When it comes to vitamin and minerals, it is the quality of the breast feeding mom’s diet that is extremely important, in the case of formula fed infants and older children consuming solid foods it’s the

quality of the formula and the foods that is important. There are many high- quality infant formulas on the market that contain all the essential nutrient that babies need for normal growth and development. However in almost all cases, the  for optimal nourishment of infants is breast feeding by a mother whose diet is filled with a balanced  mixed of whole, natural foods. With that said, there are some nutritional deficiencies that are more common in infants and children, most notable vitamin D, in 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled.

The recommended daily intake of vitamin D for infants and receive adequate amount of vitamin D without some form of supplement. The recommendation is for babies to receive 400 lus (10mcg) of liquid vitamin D starting in the first few days after birth. Once solids are introduced, you can incorporate foods that are good sources of vitamin D, such as fish, eggs and fortified foods and decrease supplementation. Sun exposure is another way to get vitamin D, but unprotected exposure for infants under six months is generally not recommended.

Recommended dietary table for nutritional need of nutrient

Dietary choices

Naturally, newborns and infants have little control over what they eat and their parents are responsible for selecting and providing any source of nourishment they receive. The clear ideal to shoot far, in virtually all circumstances, is breast feeding. The composition of breast milk, even in mothers who are not optimally healthy. The decision about whether and how long to breast feed is complex for many mothers and lack of support for breast feeding from the social and home environment. Mom who are unable or choose not to breast feed can be assured that good quality infant formulas and developed to closely mimic breast milk in their nutritional composition.

Introducing solids

According to Huh et al. (2011) the appropriate time to introduce solid foods is a controversial issue. Some nutritionist suggest introducing solid foods as early as four to six months after birth, while some suggest that the digestive and immune systems of infants are not developed sufficiently at this point to handle solid foods and argue that premature introduction of solid food may lead to food allergies, poor digestion and obesity.

More recent researches suggest that delaying certain food introductions such as dairy, beyond six months may actually be associated with an increase in allergic symptoms such as eczema so it is advisable to wait until your baby is at least six months of age. The American academy of pediatrics recommends breast feeding as the sole source of nutrition for about six months followed by a combination of breastmilk and solid foods throughout the first year.

Your baby will start to give you signals that he/she is ready to start trying solid foods at around five months, begin to watch for sign that your child is developing the physical skills necessary to begin eating he/she should be able to sit up and start to display chewing motions/up and down movement of the jaw) select simple, unprocessed foods such as pureed cooked vegetables (yams, squash and peas are great choices) fruit such as mashed bananas or apples, cooked whole grains cereals and quality source of protein such as pureed fish, plain yogurt. Once your babe cuts higher first few teeth and develops the hand eye co-ordination necessary to grasp and hold foods, you can begin introduce a wider variety of food.

Conclusion

Breast feeding is the gold standard of infant feeding up to 6months it remains the most cost effective way for reducing the risk of diseases such as obesity, hypertension, eczema, mother are advised to breast feed their babies as long as they can for a healthy growth and development. It is highly likely that in the future, nutrigenomics (or nutrigenetics) based research will provide opportunities towards personalized modification of breast milk for optimum health of neonates.

References

Andres, A., Cleves, M. &Bellando, J.(2012). Developmental status of 1 year old infants fed breast milk, cow’s milk formula, or soy formula. Pediatrics, 129 (6), 1134-40.

American Academy of Pediatrics (2012).Breastfeeding and the use of human milk executive summary.Pediatrics,129 (3), e827-e841.

Bartrick, M. & Reinhold, A. (2010).The burden of suboptimal breast feeding in the United States: a pediatric cost analysis. Pediatrics 125,e1048-e1056

Bhatia, J. & Greer, F. (2008).American academy of pediatrics committee on nutrition. Use of Soy protein- based formulas in infant feedings. Pediatrics, 121(5), 1062-1068.

Dinsdale, E. & Ward, W. (2010).Early exposure to Soy isoflavones and effects of reproductive health: a review of human and animal studies. Nutrients 2(11), 1156-87

Hadders-Algra, M. (2010).Effect of long –chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation neurodevelopmental outcome in full-term infants.Nutrients 2(8), 790-804.

Hill,D.J., Roy, N. & Heine, R.G. (2005). Effect of a low-allergen maternal diet on colic among breast fed infants: a randomized, controlled trial. Pediatrics.116(5), e709-e715.

Huh, S., Rifas-Shiman, S. &Taveras, E. (2011).Timing of solid food introduction and risk of obesity in preschool-aged children.Pediatrics 127(3), e544-e551.