Nutrition
Rationale
Proper nutrition promotes growth and helps maintain health. A number of
pediatric conditions present as aberrations of growth where nutritional
assessment is central to diagnosis and treatment.
Objectives
- Outline the nutritional needs of infants in the first year of life
(i.e. Calories, water, carbohydrate, lipids, vitamins, minerals)
- Explain the benefits and disadvantages of
- Breast feeding
- Formula feeding
- Describe the lactation process and the basic composition of human milk
- Describe differences and similarities between human milk and commonly used cow milk-based and soy-based formulas.
- Provide advice to parents about infant feeding:
- Cues given by the infant to indicate hunger
- How to determine adequacy of feeding frequency and volume
- Breast feeding techniques
- Volume and types of infant formula
- Vitamin and mineral supplementation
- Introduction of foods other than human milk or formula
- When to introduce cow milk into the diet
- Recognize when nutritional assessment is necessary beyond infancy,
and demonstrate how to obtain a daily diet diary with the assistance of a
nutritionist.