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Why is Good Nutrition Important for Our Children?

January 8, 2024
378

Food is decisive for proper functioning of the body, good growth, optimal learning capacity and the prevention of diseases.

The effects of malnutrition in early childhood can be devastating and long-lasting. A healthy and balanced diet is essential for children’s health.

A varied and healthy diet always goes hand in hand with physical activity. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children do 1 hour a day of some type of activity. Schools and childcare centers such as group and home daycare centers have activities in their curriculum where children have different physical activities.

It is important that parents share some activity during the time that their children are away from school or from their childcare providers, whether it is riding a bicycle, playing in the park, skating, swimming, dancing or soccer.

It is important to include foods that provide energy and everything necessary that a healthy child needs: foods with energy, carbohydrates, fats and protein. We must avoid juices, soft drinks, chocolates and candies or fried foods and greasy foods.

Serve foods by sizes and portions for different ages. Nutrition for children is based on the same ideas as nutrition for adults. We all need the same types of elements, such as vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein and fat. All of them together are called nutrients.

Children need different amounts of specific nutrients depending on their ages:

For 2 year old children:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ¼ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 groups of food of ½ ounce
  • Blue group: Dairy ½ cup
  • Orange group: 1 ounce

For children 3-4 years old:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ½ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 food group of ½ ounce
  • Blue group: Dairy ½ – ¾ cup
  • Orange group: 1 ½ cup

For children 5-8 years old:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ¾ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 food groups of 1 ounce
  • Blue Group: Dairy 1 cup
  • Orange group: 2 ounces

Courtesy of Precious Moment Child Care

Reference: https://www.mayoclinic.org/

in RESOURCES

Oral language: where it all begins

September 28, 2023
395

Children are language learners by virtue of being born and living in society. They build linguistic knowledge to the extent that they use language to interact with other people, the objects in their environment, and understand what surrounds them. (Halliday, 1975).03

The first manifestations of speech, such as stammering, are part of oral language. That initial babble is the response of the infant to the adult when they try to have a communication encounter. It all starts when they have their parents by their side or someone who communicates with them. It is extremely important that through oral language, the adult: speaks to them, sings, and explains the world around them; that is, it translates the physical world into words. At this stage, your voice can be “understood and heard”, even if they don’t have the adult language code. As the child grows, they acquire more vocabulary and their thoughts, ideas and forms of expression become more complex. Finally, oral language reveals children’s knowledge about language functions, their intersection skills and what they know about the world around them. (Owoki & Goodman, 2002).

The best way to enrich the sound world of childhood is by talking to them, singing, and reading to them. These three forms of stimuli complement each other, each serving a special role in language development. It is a simple way to tell if your child is listening, when parents talk to their baby, preparing them to verbally explore the world around them. The sound of words is very important, as it will be the stimulus to develop the ability to speak.

From the first moment, we adults talk to our newborns because we are sure that they understand us, that this is how we communicate. According to Vigotsky (1978), oral language plays a central role in mental processes and in the internalization of the cultural process. It reveals childrens functions, their interaction skills and what they know about the world around them. (Owoki & Goodman, 2002).

The role of the educator goes beyond educating the child, it is to promote appropriate practices for language development. We begin by fulfilling the responsibility of listening to the voice of children, and children must feel our voice. Through their conversations and actions, children expand and refine their linguistic and conceptual knowledge. To the extent that an educator listens to them talk and speaks to them, they can understand their thoughts and intentions.

Children learn as a result of social interaction and transform the language and actions of their social experience into tools for thought. The social experience of interaction with the educator and with children’s literature allowed them to incorporate a way of expressing their feelings orally. It is exposed, then, that experiences with oral language through children’s literature is the motivation that impulses learning.

Tips for good language in children.

Therefore, you should review these tips on how to stimulate language in young children.

We present a series of recommendations to stimulate the baby’s oral language: take advantage of everyday situations to stimulate language: at meals, in the bathroom, at games, going to daycare and school, in the park… the time to stimulate language never ends.

Ramos, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://alcanza.uprrp.edu/

Courtesy of Precious Moment Child Care

in RESOURCES

It is important to vaccinate children

September 28, 2023
439

Inform all about vaccines and immunity, what vaccines are made of, and how they are kept safe.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/downloads/parent-ver-sch-0-6yrs.pdf

Timely vaccination during childhood is critical because it helps provide immunity before children are exposed to life-threatening diseases. Vaccines are evaluated to ensure that they are safe and effective for administration to children at the recommended ages.

Different vaccines work in different ways, but each vaccine helps the body’s immune system learn how to fight germs. After receiving a vaccine, it usually takes a few weeks to develop protection, but that protection can last a lifetime. Some vaccines, such as the tetanus or seasonal influenza (flu) shot, require booster doses from time to time to maintain the body’s defenses.

It is important to visit the pediatrician in the first months of life of children. By at least the second month the baby must have received his first dose of vaccine. Usually in the first visit with the pediatrician the baby will receive the dose. You can purchase your doses at your clinic from their primary doctor.

Your child is exposed to thousands of microbes in their environment every day. This happens through the food they eat, the air they breathe, and the things they put in their mouth.

Babies are born with an immune system that can fight most germs, but there are some deadly diseases it can’t fight. That’s why they need vaccines to boost their immune system

Vaccines use very small amounts of antigens to help your child’s immune system recognize and learn to fight serious diseases. Antigens are part of microbes that trigger the body’s immune system to work.

It is very important that when your baby is ready to be dropped off at daycare or school, they already have the necessary vaccinations for their age. To reduce the risk of getting sick, your child, the daycare center and all children in your care must be up to date. with the vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What is the policy?

When choosing a child care setting for your child, be sure to consider this critical point: what is the institution’s policy regarding sick children?

Common diseases in the nursery:

Viruses responsible for colds or flu (influenza) cause the most common illnesses in daycare. Even if your child is vaccinated, he or she can catch viruses that cause colds, sore throats, coughs, vomiting, and diarrhea. Most babies in daycare have 8 to 12 colds a year, just a few more than they would if they were cared for exclusively at home.

After the first year a child attends daycare, the number of respiratory illnesses decreases so that by the second or third year, they have an average of four of these illnesses a year. The child usually suffers from diarrhea once or twice a year.

Recommendations on when children should not attend daycare:

The main reasons for not sending a child to daycare or school due to the condition:

  • That this prevents the child from participating comfortably in the activities.
  • The child requires more attention than staff members can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children.
  • That the child represents a risk of contagion of a harmful disease to others.

Are there repercussions if you decide not to vaccinate your children?

Those who want to go over this law, who don’t want to vaccinate their children, are only allowed to do so for two reasons: religious and medical. Those are the two exceptions.”

Vaccination requirements for school and child care are different in each state. Check with the school system or daycare to find out the requirements where you live.

Courtesy of Precious Moment Child Care

References: ( www.primerahora.com , Aug 6, 2021)

(wwwnc.cdc.gov , n.d.)

(Pediatrics), 3/22/2017)

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