Consequences of Stress on Children's Development: Hunger

Hunger is one of the common stressors in a child’s life. I work in pre-kindergarten, and several of our students only get meals they receive at school. We had a student to say she was ready for breakfast because she did not have anything to eat at home. As educated people, we know that no child can learn when their basic necessities are not met. It is very difficult to retain information and learn on an empty stomach.

During the summer, our school nutrition director serves a summer feeding program at the local parks, churches, and our schools so that our children will be fed through the summer months. Or local churches are sending backpacks filled with food in the afternoon so that some of the needy families will have can goods that can be prepared for dinner.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, is still a nation in crisis. From years of conflict and neglect, the nation is still struggling with widespread poverty, food insecurity, uneven economic development, and regional instability. The country experiences routine outbreaks of malnutrition that threatened thousands of lives. The Action Against Hunger partnership with the Congolese Ministry of Health, and health authorities treated 35,000 cases of severe malnutrition across the Democratic Republic of Congo (ONE, 2011). Malnutrition is a leading killer of children worldwide.

In outpatient centers that are managed by the Congolese Ministry of Health and integrated into the local health system, nurses are trained and equipped by Action Against Hunger to treat and monitor malnourished children during weekly visits. Children whose condition has deteriorated to such an extent to need hospitalization receive intense care in therapeutic stabilization centers, which are set up in local and regional hospitals. After the children have recovered, they are admitted to the outpatient nutrition program for continued treatment until targeted weight is reached. Majority of them return to full health within six weeks.

Now because of the national nutrition protocol and specially- formulated Ready-to-Use (RUFs) like Plumpy’nut, malnourished children can visit the outpatient centers once a week to get a medical check-up, be weighed and measured, and receive therapeutic RUFs to consume at home.

REFERENCES:
ONE. (2011). Fighting deadly malnutrition in D.R. Congo. Retrieved March 21, 2011 from http://www.one.org/blog/2011/01/04/fighting-deadly-malnutrition-in-d-r-congo/

Nutrition/Malnutrition

Nutrition/Malnutrition is a public health measure that impacts children’s development all over this world. Working in the field of early childhood, it is important that young children get the proper nutrition they need. Good nutrition is a building block for proper development and many children around the world do not get enough to eat, and the meals they do have are often deficient of essential nutrients. Research has shown that when children get good nutrition it will strengthen the immune system, enhance cognitive and physical development, and increase concentration in school.

Children with malnutrition lack the nutrients necessary for their bodies to grow and stay healthy. Children who are chronically malnourished have stunted growth and are underweight. Studies show that stunted children in the first two years of life have lower cognitive test scores, delayed enrollment, higher absenteeism, and more class repetition compared with non stunted children.

As an early childhood professional, improving the care for young children is vital. In my future work, I will ensure that the children I work with get appropriate care that will be an essential element to good nutrition and health.

Additional Resources:

Berger, K.S (2009). The developing person through childhood. (5^th ed.) New York, NY: Worth Publishers, Chapter 5.

Children International. (2011). Nutrition. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from http://www.children.org/nutrition.asp

The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust. (2011). Underlying Causes of Malnutrition- Mother, Infant and Young Child Nutrition & Malnutrition. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from http://motherchilnutrition.org/malnutrition/about-malnutrition/underlying-causes-of-mal...

The Nemours Foundation. (1995-2011). Hunger and Malnutrition. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from http://kidshealth.org/Pagemanager.jsp?dn=KidsHealth&lic=1&ps=207&cat_id=20132&art

Childbirth-In My Life and Around the World

My personal birthing experience I would like to share will be the birth of my daughter eight years after my son was born. My older children kept saying they wanted a baby sister, so my husband and I told them to “pray” about it. (Being a smart mouth cause we didn’t want any more children) So they prayed!! I got pregnant- 12 weeks into my first trimester before I knew it. (I cried)

Through my whole pregnancy, my children kept the faith it was going to be a girl. All of my sonograms couldn’t really reveal the sex of the baby, but the doctors thought it could be a girl. My children still claimed that baby girl. Being a mother believing in God- I also prayed it would be a girl silently because I didn’t want my children faith in God shattered. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I suffered lot of Braxton-Hicks feeling like contractions. In my last month of pregnancy, I had four false labors, going in-and-out of the hospital. The doctor finally decided to induce labor because I was coming up on the 4^th of July and he was going out of town for the holiday.

I went into the hospital at 8 a.m. the next morning. The doctor began the process of inducing labor. Further into labor, when I could no longer stand the pain, he gave me an epidural for pain relief. At the time for me to give birth, the epidural wore off; therefore, I gave natural birth. What an experience!! It was a girl, born on July 3^rd. My husband, children, and family were so excited. Today she is 9 years old and VERY SPOILED.

I am familiar with how the births takes place in the U.S., but there are different rituals and traditions around the world. In the 18^th Century France, after a baby is born, he would be washed in red roses, oil and red wine, and in Ancient Malaysia, women gave birth with no pain relief, but had to make do with a massage from their midwife, which is the same as some women here in the U.S. Some women here choose to have a natural birth, without using medications. We have a choice to deliver traditionally or modern.  Indonesian and Hindi countries conduct prayer ceremonies for the mom-to-be and in Mexico; it used to be normal practice for women to stay in bed for 40 days after giving birth. In many countries around the world, the placenta is celebrated, as it is considered a symbol of a baby’s relationship with his family and country. In certain countries there are even burial ceremonies for the placenta, and if the women then stepped over it, it was believed that she would become infertile. I read about a lot of different traditions and rituals around the world and how a woman conducts herself in labor, but these are some I chose to share