The human brain develops throughout a person’s life but exhibits maximum plasticity and growth in the 1000 days spanning the period between conception and the first two years of the child’s post-natal life. This period provides a unique window of opportunity to lay strong foundations of neurodevelopment, growth and health. Inadequate or lack of nutrition during this time can cause long-term damage to cognitive and development functions as well as nutritional deficiencies that are irreversible. In addition, any later-stage investments in nutrition and health are heavily undermined vis-à-vis the realization of the child’s development potential.
According to a policy brief by WHO, childhood stunting, an irreversible outcome of inadequate nutrition and repeated bouts of infection during the first 1000 days, is one of the most significant impediments to human development. Projections indicate that the continuation of current trends will lead to 127 million children under 5 being stunted by 2025. Stunting is inextricably linked with other nutrition targets i.e. anemia in women, low birth weight, obesity, exclusive breastfeeding and wasting. Stunting can also economically drain a country by reducing its GDP by up to 3%.
For a country like India, harnessing the long-term dividends from its young demographic is a significant challenge. One of the preconditions for sustainable development is the existence of a well-nourished and healthy population and consequently, the success of government flagship programmes like Make in India, Skill India and Digital India is tied to the availability of a healthy workforce. Therefore, lack of investments in early childhood development can prove to be a policy blunder.
Malnutrition is 100% preventable and evidence-based interventions that specifically target the first 1000 days are not only cost-effective and affordable, but can alleviate severe socio-economic and health consequences, while yielding massive long-term returns. These must focus on prevention by ensuring that pregnant and lactating mothers are adequately nourished. Exclusive breastfeeding practices in the first six months followed by optimal and complementary feeding until 23 months is crucial. This continued breastfeeding ensures the intake of crucial nutrients that may be lacking in complementary diets, especially in resource-poor settings.
Provision of balanced and diversified diets with adequate nutrient content(folic acid, iron, polyunsaturated fatty acids, colostrum etc.) can ensure stronger physical and mental development of children so that they become productive adults with healthy eating habits. From the health perspective, these children are ten times more likely to overcome life-threatening childhood diseases. Thus, it is critical that pregnant women and infants are provided with appropriate nutrients as both under-nutrition and over-nutrition can cause health risks for them.If stunted children rapidly gain weight after 2 years, they increasingly risk become overweight or obese later in life, leading to further risks of lifestyle diseases like coronary issues, hypertension, diabetes.
Adequate availability of nutrition-rich foods and diets need to be supported by nutrition-sensitive interventions. These include household practices like hand-washing with soap to prevent infections, behaviour change to adopt the best sanitation and hygiene practices and availability of safe water supply.
Unless, government interventions and public-private collaborations do not converge their efforts to effectively target the first 1000 days, the invisible, pernicious and intergenerational cycle of maternal and child malnutrition will continue to pose a critical public health concern, embodying severe challenges and consequences.
Aditi Rukhaiyar
November 22, 2018
source https://indiaoutbound.org/nutritional-significance-of-the-first-1000-days/
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