Nutrition during life cycle
Nutrition during Life Cycle
The importance of nutrition throughout the life cycle cannot be refuted. Nutrient requirement varies through different stages of life cycle, which can be divided into following six categories:
Intrauterine
Infancy
Adolescence
Adulthood
Old age
Intrauterine to Adolescence
Different life cycle stages put different demands on the body for specific nutrients. For example, during intrauterine period when the growth is very rapid, demand of almost all the nutrients is very high and the fetus gets it through mother at any cost.
Though height, weight and health status of a child is genetically pre determined, still the environmental factors play an important role in achieving that genetic potential. Nutritional status of a child is one of the most important factors from among those environmental factors. The good part is that we can control this factor.
Have a look at below given statistics which shows average figures of growth pattern of Indian children:
WEIGHT
Mean birth weight is 2.7 to 2.9kgs.
Infants till 3 months of age gains 25 – 30g per day.
Doubles birth weight by 5 months of age.
Triples by 1 year.
Quadruples (four times) by the age of 2 years.
After 2 years of age there is an increase of 1.5 to 3.0 kg weight every year till pre adolescent age.
LENGTH / HEIGHT
Average length of the child at birth is 50cm.
Child grows 14cm in the first 6 months.
By the end of first year there is an addition of 25 cm.
By the end of 2nd year 12.5 cm more is added.
Between 2 – 3 years there is an increment of 7.5 cm.
Child grows on an average about 5 – 6 cm in height each year after 3 years of age.
ADOLESCENCE
GIRLS: Adolescents start at 10 -12 years of age in girls. There is an increase in 9 -10 cm in height and 8 – 10 kg in weight.
BOYS: Adolescent starts in boys 2 years after girls with a similar pattern of height and weight gain.
Above given data puts enough light on the fact that since conception till adulthood a continuous growth process occurs in human body. Nutrition plays a pivotal role in achieving optimum growth potential. Frequent illnesses, poor immunity, tiredness, lack of concentration and irritability are a few symptoms which indicate deficiencies of several nutrients; these if not taken care of on time may hamper overall growth of the child and may result into stunting (short height for age) or wasting (less weight for age). Along with that the dietary habits formed during these formative years determine the health status in later years of life. It is important to establish good dietary habits during childhood which not only helps in appropriate growth and development of a child but also lessens the possibility of inappropriate eating behaviour later in life.
ADULTHOOD & OLD AGE
Once a person achieves his/her adulthood, the role of nutrition shifted towards maintenance of good health, improving immunity and keeping life style related diseases at a bay.
During middle and old age, the focus of nutritional guidelines are more on avoiding degenerative diseases and keeping up with the challenges of old age related health issues and moreover on aging gracefully.
Involuntary changes that occur in the body with aging that leads to the development of many life style and degenerative diseases can be accelerated or slowed down depending on the quality of the individual’s nutritional intake, the health of the gut and the function of the immune system. All of these are again dependent on overall nutritional status of a person.