Pediatric Nutrition Handbook 6th Edition by American Academy of Pediatrics
ISBN: 9781581102987
The role of nutrition in the well-being of infants and children has expanded
beyond determining the quantities of nutrients needed to prevent classic
defi ciency states such as scurvy. Modern nutritional science now seeks to
understand the interaction between nutrition and human physiology at the
level of genetics and molecular biology. In addition, a major direction in nutritional
research is to examine how those interactions that occur early in life
affect health and development not only at different periods during infancy
and childhood but also over the life span of the individual. To provide one
example, does the provision of specifi c nutrients such as long-chain fatty acids
during pregnancy or during early infancy infl uence cognition, behavior,
and vision of the young infant, and if so, do those benefi ts persist into later
childhood and even adulthood? We also have come to recognize that nutrients,
foods, and eating patterns are not synonymous. What and how infants
and children are fed and eat have many determinants, including those that
are cultural, traditional, behavioral, cognitive, and environmental, and this is
another major current focus of investigation.
