The Importance Nutrition in Infancy and Childhood

Ever since I found out I was going to be a mother, I began to hear so many things about the importance of nutrition when it came to my unborn child. After I had my child, I was informed by everyone from my mother, to my sisters, to my grandmother, to the pediatrician how important it would be for me to keep my child health and nutrition played the biggest role in doing so. Nutrition is very important in that it encourages breast feeding, the best way to feed your infant, and ensures that your child will avoid malnutrition, and discourages childhood obesity in toddlers.
When I had my newborn in my arms, the first thing the nurse told me was “I’m not sure if you decided to breast feed but it’s the best way to feed him, hands down”. While I was pregnant, I had learned so much about breast feeding and how it would be the best form of nourishment for my baby. I was amazed when I learned of how many benefits there were to breast feeding. Breastfeeding not only was the best way to feed my baby but it kept my baby from being susceptible to so many illnesses; “Diarrhea, respiratory infections, otitis media (an infection of the middle ear), and staphylococcal, bacterial, and urinary tract infections” are examples of some of these illnesses (Papalia, 2008, p. 147). I made it very important to me to research breastfeeding and find out everything my child would gain. I was amazed at how many health benefits there are to babies who are breastfed. When I breastfed my son I felt closer to him and was proud that I was giving him the best form of nutrition possible.
Malnutrition, the insufficient or imbalanced, consumption of nutrients is a something that could affect the child if they do not receive proper nutrition. According to the text, malnutrition in early life is widespread- and often fatal; Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of deaths of children globally, and many children are reversibly damaged by age 2 (p. 148). In order to prevent underweight,