Brittiny Carrington
PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (BOG1034A)
The Importance of Nutrition during Infancy to Toddler-Hood
Instructor: Sundie Goulding
September 6, 2010

When a woman becomes pregnant the doctors be sure to inform her that she will need to make sure she has good nutritional foods throughout the pregnancy to help her and the baby with healthy weight gain and a healthy body. If she chooses not to follow doctor’s orders she will be putting herself and her baby at risk of unhealthy bodily conditions. The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of the importance of good nutritional values during the infancy and toddler-hood of children. When a child has good nutritional values it leads to healthy physical and mental conditions. Proper nutrition plays a significant role in children’s health and growth while they are infants and further into toddler-hood. However, malnutrition can cause a damper in children’s health and development. Ways that mothers can make sure that their infants are receiving nutrition with ever feeding is through breastfeeding. Mother’s that choose to breastfeed help their children to be healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally. Children that are breastfed are healthier physically because breastmilk helps an infant be less prone to having postneonatal death and it prevents illnesses such as diarrhea, respiratory, ear, and urinary tract infections. They are healthier mentally because the nutrients in breastmilk help with brain development in infants. They are also healthier emotionally because the breastfeeding interaction helps infants become closer to their mothers emotionally. It is like having an invisible connection with the mother. During pregnancy the infant is receiving its nutrients through the umbilical cord so after birth because of immunocompetence in breastmilk the same nutrients