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Infancy and the early years
Published in Julia Whitaker, Alison Tonkin, Play for Health Across the Lifespan, 2021
The first 1000 days of human life, from conception to two years of age, have been described as ‘a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established’ (Cusick and Georgieff n.d.). By the end of this period, which has been identified as a key developmental assessment point, growth markers are predictive of subsequent intelligence and school performance in high-, middle-, and low-economic settings (Villar et al. 2019). As the foundation for learning (Piazza et al. 2020), play during the first 1000 days ‘is not frivolous: it is brain building’ (Yogman et al. 2018). Play at the start of life is not a trivial or frivolous matter because not only is it one of the building blocks for lifelong learning, but it is also a crucial factor in how well – and perhaps even how long – a person will live (Nijhof et al. 2018).
Costing and Financing Nutrition Programs in the Developing World
Published in Bill Pritchard, Rodomiro Ortiz, Meera Shekar, Routledge Handbook of Food and Nutrition Security, 2016
Meera Shekar, Julia Dayton, Jakub Kakietek
Malnutrition is a problem of staggering proportions in the developing world. Although the term malnutrition encompasses both undernutrition and overweight, and both conditions are prevalent in the developing world, the scope of this chapter is limited to estimating the costs and benefits of addressing undernutrition. This is because the vast majority of child mortality and morbidity in the developing world is caused by undernutrition. As recently reported in the Lancet, 3.1 million children under five years of age die every year from undernutrition and this accounted for 45 per cent of all child deaths in 2011 (Black et al. 2013). Further, undernutrition, particularly in very young children, leads to long-term effects on cognitive abilities, resulting in irreversible losses in human capital that contribute to future losses in economic productivity, especially in developing economies. Most of the malnutrition that occurs in the first 1000 days of a child’s life is essentially irreversible. Investing in early childhood nutrition interventions offers a window of opportunity to permanently lock-in human capital that can drive national economies.
New Zealand parents/caregivers’ knowledge and beliefs about child language development
Published in Speech, Language and Hearing, 2022
Elizabeth Gibson, Dean Sutherland, Jayne Newbury
Optimal language nutrition in the early years is important for children’s language development and subsequent academic success, and efforts are being made, particularly in the USA, to raize the achievement of children who experience suboptimal language nutrition in infancy and toddlerhood. For example, the Head Start program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010) and parenting coaching programs aim to increase talk in the home (see www.LENAfoundation.com). Reese and Newcombe (2007) reported that differences also appeared to exist in levels of home-based talk in New Zealand. This was based on their observation that mothers with high school level education and their children both used less quality and quantity of language in their conversations about past events than those with tertiary level education. In addition, Van Hees (2011) reported that some New Zealand children from less advantaged families start school with a working vocabulary of less than 3000 words compared to 6000 words of children from more advantaged families. In New Zealand, however, there are no nationally-coordinated support programs to specifically raise the language skills of children from impoverished backgrounds. A non-government organization Talking Matters (see https://cometauckland.org.nz) aims to promote language nutrition in the home during the first 1000 days of an infant’s life. Talking Matters is currently operating in Auckland and Christchurch, two of the largest cites in New Zealand. This program emphasizes the importance of adult language input to support children’s development and well-being.
Impact of a nutritional supplement during gestation and early childhood on child salivary cortisol, hair cortisol, and telomere length at 4–6 years of age: a follow-up of a randomized controlled trial
Published in Stress, 2020
Brietta M. Oaks, Seth Adu-Afarwuah, Sika Kumordzie, Mark L. Laudenslager, Dana L. Smith, Jue Lin, Rebecca R. Young, Charles D. Arnold, Helena Bentil, Harriet Okronipa, Maku Ocansey, Kathryn G. Dewey
Research on the long-term effects of improving nutrition during both gestation and childhood is needed to determine the full impact of nutrition interventions when focused on the first 1000 days (gestation and the first 2 years), providing critical information to maternal and child nutrition programs. This study has contributed toward addressing this research gap by examining child cortisol and telomere length at 4–6 years of age among children from a prenatal and early childhood nutrition supplementation trial. Our results suggest that nutrition supplementation had little to no effect on these markers of stress and cellular aging at this time point in the child’s life. Further research exploring other indicators of health and at other time points for the offspring are needed to fully understand the impact of prenatal and early childhood nutrition.
Using longitudinal data to understand nutrition and health interactions in rural Gambia
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2020
The accumulated data of infant growth from the Keneba cohorts reveals a growth pattern very typical of children from resource poor settings in both Africa and Southeast Asia, with a rapid falloff in HAZ during the first 2 years of life and no recovery until after five years of age (Victora et al. 2010; Prentice et al. 2013). This observed pattern of growth underpins the recent focus on the period from conception to two years of age (coined the first 1000 days) and there has been a recent investment and focus on interventions targeting this period. We have used the longitudinal growth data from the Keneba cohorts to argue that – whilst investments in the first 1000 days should not be undermined – there are also other periods across the life-course where investments in nutrition and health interventions may be effective. To illustrate this point, the longitudinal growth data from rural Gambia demonstrates an extended pubertal growth phase, allowing considerable height recovery, especially in girls during adolescence (Prentice et al. 2013). These data have contributed towards the argument that adolescence represents an additional window of opportunity during which substantial life cycle and intergenerational effects can be accrued.