10 Sep 2015

The District Health Management Team (DHMT) nutritionist in Kanye, Mr Sonyboy Ramono, says early childhood nutrition is critical for the promotion and monitoring of child growth. Mr Ramono said in an interview that children must be given a variety of nutrients, which aided development of both their physical and mental strengths.

“Early infantile nutrition also helps boost the immune system to fight childhood illnesses,” he said.

Consequently, Mr Ramono said improper feeding of children could have negative impact on both physical and mental wellbeing of a child that could manifest itself as either under nutrition and over nutrition.

He said it was imperative therefore for parents to be cautious and ensure they maintained a balance when feeding their children. However, Mr Ramono warned that over nutrition was dangerous because it could lead to diseases such as asthma and diabetes, organs malfunction and children losing their tastes buds.

He also noted that malnourished children had high probability of acquiring illnesses such as pneumonia.

Thus, he said proper feeding was a solution to a healthy, mentally and physically fit child development and ensured attainment of all child development milestones.

“The first two years of the child life are the most crucial for childhood development and should not be neglected at all,” he said.

That withstanding, Mr Ramono said parents whose children were affected one way or the other by nutrition related conditions should not despair because special supplementary nutrition programmes were available for such children from six months to five years old.

Furthermore, he recommended that children be given nutritious diets, fruits and vegetables, milk products and avoid salty and sugary products such as ice creams and cakes. Ends