Here is your short essay on Food & Nutrition

1. A child under three years of age needs a small amount of extra fat of oil added to the family’s ordinary food.

The family’s normal food needs to be enriched to meet the special energy needs of the growing child. This means adding mashed vegetables and small amounts of fats or oils-butter, ghee, vegetable oil, Soya oil, coconut oil, corn oil, groundnut oil, or crushed nuts.

Breast milk also enriches a child’s diet and should continue if possible, until well into the second year of a child’s life.

2. All children need foods rich in Vitamin A

Over 200,000 children go blind each year because they do not have enough Vitamin A in their bodies. Vitamin A may also protect children against other illnesses such as diarrhea. It should therefore be a part of every child’s daily diet.

Vitamin A comes from breast milk, dark green leafy vegetables, and from orange or yellow fruits and vegetables such as carrots, papayas and mangoes.

If a child has had diarrhea or measles, Vitamin A will be lost from the child’s body. It can be replaced by breastfeeding more often and by feeding the child more fruit and vegetables.

3. After an illness, a child needs extra meals to catch up on the growth lost during the illness.

One of the most important skills of a parent is the skill of stopping illnesses from holding back a child’s growth. In times of illness, and especially if the illness is diarrhea or measles, the appetite falls and less of the food that is eaten is absorbed into the body. If this happens several times a year, the child’s growth will be held back.

So it is essential to keep on encouraging a child who is ill to take food and drink. This can be very difficult if the child does not want to eat. So it is important to keep offering the child the food he or she likes, usually soft, sweet foods, a little at a time and as often as possible Breastfeeding is especially important.

When the illness is over, extra meals should be given so that the child catches upon the growth lost. A good rule is to give a child an extra meal every day for at least a week after the illness is over. The

Child is not fully recovered from an illness until he or she is at least the same weight as when the illness began.

If illness and poor appetite persist for more than a few days, the child should be taken to a health worker.

It is also important to protect a child’s growth by preventing illness.

(a) Give a child breast milk alone for the first four-to-six months of life, then introduce other foods, and continue to breastfeed;

(b) Get your child fully immunized before the age of one year.

(c) Always use latrines and keep hands, food and kitchens clean;

4. Talking, playing, and showing loves are essential for a child’s physical, mental and emotional growth.

In addition to physical needs, the child also has two other needs, which are vital to his or her mental and emotional development.