Nutrition/malnutrition

This topic is so important because healthy children are the key to healthy learners.   Good nutrition is possible only if you eat balanced diets and practice good eating habits.   As well as providing the kids with the Essential vitamins and minerals in the diet that are vital to boost immunity and healthy development. Vitamin A, zinc, iron and iodine deficiencies are primary public health concerns.

Malnutrition lacks the nutrients necessary for their bodies to grow and stay healthy. Malnutrition can affect someone's physical and mental health. People who are suffering from malnutrition are more likely to get sick; in very severe cases, they may even die from its effects.   Kids who are chronically malnourished don't grow as tall as they should and are underweight as well.  This results when the body doesn't get the proper kind and the right amount of nutrients that it needs for growth and survival.

About 2 billion people are affected by inadequate iodine nutrition worldwide. More than one third of preschool-age children globally are vitamin A deficient. Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children.

In Africa is among the children with highest in Eastern Africa 42% were affected as of 2011 this is a major contributor to disease and early deaths for mothers and children Under nutrition, including vitamin and mineral deficiencies, contributes to about one third of all child deaths, and impairs healthy development and life-long productivity. At the same time, growing rates of overweight are linked to a rise in chronic diseases. The result is a double burden of malnutrition slows down, brain development lags and stunted children learn poorly.

As an early childhood professional I am fully aware of how important it is to have healthy kids, not eating right can make kids sick can cause problems with growing and developing. Kids especially need to eat healthy food and enough of it to grow and develop and order for children to learn they have be full and not sick to get a good understanding of what they are learning.