Investing in early childhood nutrition:

"It has long been known that good nutrition is essential to children's physical and cognitive development, but recent evidence sheds new light on the optimal timing of interventions to improve child nutrition and the long-term effects of such interventions. Recent studies have shown that undernutrition has a whole range of effects that impede not only children's nutrition and development in the short term, but also their cognitive abilities and productivity in adulthood, with measurable economic impacts. They have also shown that the window of opportunity for addressing child nutritional needs in ways that produce healthy, productive adults lasts from conception through age two. After that, the effects of undernutrition are largely irreversible. By addressing the large and severe problem of early childhood undernutrition in many poor countries, policymakers could maximize the effectiveness of investments designed to achieve overall development goals." from authors' abstractChildren, Nutrition, malnutrition, Undernutrition, Nutrition policy Developing countries,

Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement

Early childhood nutrition is thought to be an important input into subsequent academic achievement. This paper investigates the nutrition-learning nexus using a unique longitudinal data set, which follows a large sample of Philippine children from birth until the end of their primary education. We find that malnourished children perform more poorly in school, even after correcting for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity both across and within households. Part of the advantage that well-nourished children enjoy arises from the fact that they enter school earlier and thus have more time to learn. The rest of their advantage appears to stem from greater learning productivity per year of schooling rather than from greater learning effort in the form of homework time, school attendance, and so forth. Despite these findings, our analysis suggests that the relationship between nutrition and learning is not likely to be of overriding importance either for nutrition policy or in accounting for economic growth.Gender ,households ,Human Nutrition. ,Malnutrition in children. ,Education, Primary Philippines. ,Philippines. ,

The Links Between the Neighborhood Food Environment and Childhood Nutrition

Identifies key studies on the availability of, and residents' access to, healthy foods and how they influence the choices of low-income children and their families. Discusses efforts to bring about improvements and new research and policy priorities

Identification of Best Practices for Childhood Nutrition Education Interventions

Childhood obesity remains a major concern in the United States, as 17% of children and adolescents ages 2-18 are obese. Although changes in knowledge alone are not enough to change behavior, most successful nutrition interventions to reduce childhood obesity include nutrition education. The purpose of this study is to understand practices that impact the effectiveness of childhood nutrition education, and to identify expert opinions of essential best practices for childhood nutrition education. A literature review was conducted to identify previously established best practices for childhood nutrition education for 6-12 year olds. Eight sources were identified, and 33 best practices were cited. Ten members of a USDA multi-state research group reviewed the best practices and edits were made according to their feedback. Three practices were added, and four were deleted. In order to understand experts’ opinions about childhood nutrition education, an interview script was developed based on the revised list of best practices. Cognitive interviews were conducted with faculty members of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Department of Public Health Nutrition, and Extension agents. Three practices were deleted, and eight practices were combined. To ensure clarity, a second round of cognitive interviews were conducted with the same interviewees. Four practices were added during this process. A total of 23 best practices were included in the subsequent interview and ranking process. Four experts received a list of the final 23 best practices and were asked to rank the top ten best practices. Through an interview, experts were asked to provide greater detail about each of the 23 practices, explaining and describing in their own words. Emerging concepts were documented in narrative form. Experts reviewed this document to ensure that the document represented their thoughts accurately. This study found that there is great variability among the literature and experts concerning best practices for childhood nutrition education interventions. In the future, best practices for specific settings and age groups should be established and disseminated in order to improve the effectiveness of childhood nutrition education interventions

The Impact of Nutrition during Early Childhood on Education among Guatemalan Adults

Early childhood nutrition is thought to have important effects on education, broadly defined to include various forms of learning. We advance beyond previous literature on the effect of early childhood nutrition on education in developing countries by using unique longitudinal data begun during a nutritional experiment during early childhood with educational outcomes measured in adulthood. Estimating an intent-to-treat model capturing the effect of exposure to the intervention from birth to 36 months, our results indicate significantly positive, and fairly substantial, effects of the randomized nutrition intervention a quarter century after it ended: increased grade attainment by women (1.2 grades) via increased likelihood of completing primary school and some secondary school; speedier grade progression by women; a one-quarter SD increase in a test of reading comprehension with positive effects found for both women and men; and a one-quarter SD increase on nonverbal cognitive tests scores. There is little evidence of heterogeneous impacts with the exception being that exposure to the intervention had a larger effect on grade attainment and reading comprehension scores for females in wealthier households. The findings are robust to an array of alternative estimators of the standard errors and controls for sample attrition.education, schooling, Guatemala, nutrition, economic development, Latin America

Mothers’ Attitudes about Childhood Nutrition Coverage in Magazines and Newspapers

This study explores mothers’ attitudes toward magazine and newspaper coverage of childhood nutrition issues. The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased in recent years along with media coverage of obesity and obesity issues. This growing concern has posed a problem for society and parents. Focus group interviews and individual interviews were conducted with mothers who read magazines and newspapers. These interviews explored mothers’ nutrition habits, knowledge of obesity and, overall, their attitudes about childhood nutrition topics, such a childhood obesity, as they are presented in magazines and newspapers

Early Childhood Nutrition Knowledge of Caregivers in Tanzania

Childhood stunting is a pressing health issue in Tanzania and results from chronic infections and inadequate nutrition. Educating caregivers on the nutritional determinants, their consequences, and appropriate solutions may improve nutrition-related practices among caregivers in Tanzania. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with Tanzanian caregivers’ knowledge of childhood nutrition practices. Data for this study came from a cross-sectional survey of 4,095 caregivers of children under 24 months living in the Geita, Kagera, Kigoma, Mwanza, and Shinyanga regions of Tanzania. Complete responses relating to demographic and socioeconomic factors, media exposure, and early childhood nutrition knowledge were analyzed using multiple linear regression modeling techniques. Caregivers’ knowledge concerning proper early childhood nutrition practices was found to be significantly related to using a mobile banking account (p<.0001), owning a working radio with batteries (p<.0001), having watched television recently (p<.0001), residing in a southern lake region (p<.0001), affiliating with a Christian faith (p=0.0027), having more children under the age of 5 (p=0.0005), having received advice on maternal nutrition before pregnancy (p<.0001) and having received advice from a community health worker (p=0.0184). Living in a rural environment (p<.0001) and speaking a non-mainstream language (p<0.05) were significantly associated with decreased knowledge. The influences of media and technology, socio-demographic factors and traditional health education may be important in the development of accurate childhood nutrition knowledge among caregivers. These factors may be targeted for future community health worker efforts with vulnerable populations in Tanzania to prevent stunting

Early childhood nutrition and anaemia prevention project: summary report June 2013

This report summarises and evaluates a program of preventive multi-micronutrient supplementation, peer-counselling and nutrition promotion that was piloted in six remote northern Australian Aboriginal communities. Introduction The Early Childhood Nutrition and Anaemia Prevention Project (ECNAPP) was implemented in six remote communities, four in the Northern Territory (NT), one in Cape York in Queensland (Qld) and one in the East Kimberley region in Western Australia (WA). Project planning and development commenced in 2006, with project activities occurring between 2010 and 2012. T his report summarises the project development, program implementation, results of the evaluation of both project processes and outcomes, and provides recommendations for future policy, programs and research addressing infant and young child nutrition and anaemia in northern Australia.   Authored by Danielle Aquino, Julia V Marley, Kate Senior, Dympna Leonard, Angelina Joshua, Amelia Huddleston, Heather Ferguson, Janet Helmer, Nyssa Hadgraft and Vivienne Hobson