Children's Nutrition from a Pediatrition's Perspective

"Many of today's children are overfed and undernourished. As nutrients fall short and as empty calorie processed foods fill our children up, we see that health risks in their future will be inevitable. They predict that 1 in 3 children born in the United States today will develop Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. If that child is Black or Hispanic, that risk goes to 1 in 2.

Impact of Nutrient Deficiencies on Our Children

Nutrient deficiencies in children may have short-term and long-term health effects and research is rapidly accumulating in this area. A few studies that have focused on the nutritional needs of children are summarized below.

• A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, April 1999, looked at children in the eighth-grade and measured their homocysteine levels. High levels of the amino acid, homocysteine (a by-product of our normal metabolism), has been found to increase cardiovascular disease risk in adults. Three vitamins: folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 have been found to help lower homocysteine. This is the first large US study to measure homocysteine in children.
  
• Children who did not take a multivitamin had six percent more homocysteine than children who even took one vitamin a week. The children who took daily vitamins were the most protected from high homocysteine levels. Currently, this evidence does not mean that vitamins for children will prevent heart attacks or strokes later in life, but we certainly need to study this issue further.
  
• Osteoporosis affects 25 million Americans a year and contributes to approximately 1.3 million bone fractures per year according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Building bone mass early in life can help prevent osteoporosis. A survey of adolescents showed that only 19 percent of adolescents know what the RDA guidelines are for calcium. Their average calcium intake was about half of the RDA.
• High levels of choline during pregnancy may enhance memory and learning capacity in the fetus. The National Academy of Sciences has designated choline an essential nutrient. Pregnant women should take 450 milligrams per day and nursing women should get 550 milligrams daily. Initial studies done with pregnant rats suggest choline supplementation may have long lasting effects on brain function. Pups born to mothers that received no choline did poorly on tests designed to measure attention and certain types of memory.

-Dr. Christine Wood, M.D., C.L.E. is a practicing pediatrician and certified lactation educator with interests in healthy nutrition for children and the environmental and nutritional health and disease.