The document discusses the critical role of proper nutrition in child development, highlighting the dual issues of malnourishment and obesity. It emphasizes the need for effective nutritional strategies within schools, homes, and restaurants, underscoring how environmental factors influence children’s dietary habits. Furthermore, it calls for policies that ensure better access to nutritious foods to address food insecurity and improve overall health outcomes for children.

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Nutrition for Children
Korina Calbay
The University of Georgia

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Nutrition for Children
Introduction
Proper nutrition is important to the healthy development of children. Nutrition can fall
between two extremes: malnourishment or obesity. Supplemental nutrition is encouraged to
develop healthy habits and in turn increase lifespan. Though some institutions may claim that
they are providing children with the nutrition to fulfill their needs, research shows that there is a
need for more efficient strategies to promote healthy eating. An example is that food-insecurity
is commonly believed to lead to wasting of the muscles, but the same factor can also lead to
obesity due to consumption of empty calories. Research on child nutrition calls for development
of policies to help feed children best at school, home, and commercial areas.
Background
Although the 1900s began with malnourishment resulting from the Great Depression and
two World Wars, the United States and other developed countries are encountering increasing
rates of obesity (Gunther & Hopkins, 2015). After the government recognized the lack of
resources to feed the nation, Congress designed a school lunch program called the National
School Lunch Act of 1946 (NSLA). Years later, they also designed the Child Nutrition Act
(CAN) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) oversees these programs, but they have instilled poor nutritional standards. The
programs have contributed to the trend of childhood obesity, and researchers have been looking
into how children should be best fed in their environments such as school.
Research
Extensive research on child nutrition has been done especially with obesity rates on the
rise within the United States. The main focus of the articles that I researched are centered on

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child nutrition at school, home, and restaurants. The majority of research is conducted through
qualitative studies, but quantitative studies were examined as well. Researchers conduct their
studies by asking survey questions. An example of a question in relation to food insecurity is, “In
the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip meals because there was not enough money
for food (Kaur, Lamb, & Ogden, 2015)?” An example of a quantitative measure within nutrition
research is measuring weight differences in repeated foreign food consumption throughout the
time span of several weeks (Blundell, Cockroft, Hetherington, & Nekitsing, 2019). The child-
level food insecurity question fell under the specification of skipped meals in the survey. There
was a variety of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of childhood nutrition. The reoccurring
conclusion from all studies encourages the development of effective nutrition strategies to reduce
incidences of obesity and improve overall health.
Based on the scientific articles, several ways were discovered with how children develop
in a poor condition from nutrition. In an ironic though credible journal, researchers found that
children living in food insecurity were found to have higher rates of obesity. Food insecurity is
characterized by limited access to food. Rates of obesity were measured using the body mass
index (BMI) scale, which is weight divided by height. Obesity was defined as a BMI greater than
or equal to the age- and sex-specific 95th percentile (Kaur et al., 2015). The most common age
group that fell into the category of food insecurity was between the ages of 6- to 11-year-old
children (Kaur et al., 2015). The prevalence of obesity was higher among food-insecure children
than food-secure children for several possible reasons. Children who cannot afford to purchase
nutritious foods resort to more affordable foods which are higher in fat content. Food-insecure
children tend to overeat when food is available, and irregular food habits increase the chances of
being overweight.

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Research shows that under-nutrition also compromises appropriate development in
children. A cross-sectional survey observed the prevalence of malnutrition in the children of Iran
aged six years or younger by use of a questionnaire and anthropometric measurements which
include height and weight. A combination of demographic factors lead to the malnourishment of
young children in Iran. Family income lower than 667 U.S. dollars resulted in stunting and
wasting (Heidari, Kavosi, Kavosi, Moghadami, & Rostami, 2014). Living in an urban area
increased the chances of poor child development such as being stunted, wasted, or underweight.
A family with a college education was less likely to experience stunting in their children since
higher levels of education increased awareness of how a child’s nutrition should be
supplemented.
A study in England experimented with how taste exposure and nutrition education
increased the consumption and willingness to try new foods. Findings showed that the children
who wanted to consume the foreign radish from the start of the experiment showed a heightened
desire for it over time by eating more of the food at each exposure. The group of children that
only received nutrition education showed that learning about a vegetable was not sufficient
enough to increase the intake of the food, but it set the scene for trying a new vegetable (article
ref). Researchers proposed a method of increasing vegetable consumption by introducing them
through nutrition education by experiential learning, then taste exposure.
The next cross-sectional study to give insight within the education system is a study of
breakfast habits among school children. According to Albashtawy (2017), breakfast skipping
among schoolchildren was initially high and increased with age. The study found that children
who ate breakfast in the morning did so because it was a daily ritual, wanted to feel energetic, or
eliminated hunger. Those who did not eat breakfast indicated that they did not have enough time

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to eat at home, or they did not have any breakfast food at home to eat before the start of school.
The findings showed that healthy nutrition at home is crucial for a child to focus in school.
Aside from receiving nutrition from school and home, commercial restaurants have also
impacted the development of children. A study took place in Ireland and England to examine the
nutritional value of children’s menus in restaurants. The study found that chain restaurants in
both countries had salt and fat content that were higher than the recommended daily intake. Even
though there were healthy alternatives to the usual sides like fries, customers still chose to
consume the unhealthy option (Coppinger, Reeves, & Young, 2019). Restaurants fail to advertise
better alternatives to customers and offer attractive deals for choosing more nutritious foods at
the restaurant. Another study observed the associations between BMI, obesity, and the distance
between a child’s residence and a fast food restaurant. Children that lived one-tenth or one-
quarter of a mile away from a fast food restaurant had higher BMI scores (Coppinger et al.,
2019). Students are suggested to reside in areas further away from fast food chains.
Relation to Child Development Theories and Application to Research, Teaching, Working
with Children
Child nutrition can be improved by thorough evaluation of how children are affected by
their surrounding environment. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory shows how a child
is affected by the relationships in their environment (Leigh, 2019). The mesosystem and the
macrosystem of the theory play a role in child nutrition. A mesosystem are the connections
between a child’s immediate surroundings, and the macrosystem consists of laws and resources
(Leigh, 2019). The mesosystem of a child includes their school and family; both places need
nutritional guidelines to foster proper development of a child. Aside from the immediate
surroundings of a child, the macrosystem can put policies in place to ensure that a child is

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receiving enough nutrients from the food that they purchase at the inner levels of their
environment. An example of this is designing programs to improve access to healthy foods for
schoolchildren (Kaur et al., 2015). Further research on child nutrition can lead to more findings
on the causes of obesity, malnourishment, and food-insecurity and how to best minimize the
three.
Importance for Teachers, Parents, and Researchers
Parents, teachers, and researchers should approach child nutrition with great care as it is a
factor that can grow or inhibit development for life. Parents can change the course of a child’s
development by instilling healthy food patterns. Knowing that child nutrition can affect students’
performance, teachers should take great care in making sure that children are provided with the
nutrients they need to succeed in their educational endeavors. Teachers can teach students simple
lessons about child nutrition using empirical-based research to ensure high quality education. An
example of this would be having children bring in healthy foods and playing “show and tell” to
portray healthy foods in a better light and increase the willingness of students to try the food.
Proper nutrition establishes preventative measures against disease and give researchers answers
as to how people can best lead healthy lives.

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References
Albashtawy, M. (2017). Breakfast eating habits among schoolchildren. Journal of Pediatric
Nursing, 36(10), 118-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2017.05.013.
Blundell-Birtill, P., Cockroft, J., Hetherington, M., & Nekitsing, C. (2019). Taste exposure
increases intake and nutrition education increases willingness to try an unfamiliar
vegetable in preschool children: A cluster randomized trial. Journal of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(12), 2004-2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2019.05.012.
Coppinger, T., Reeves, S., & Young, M. (2019). The nutritional value of children’s menus in
chain restaraunts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Journal of Nutrition Education and
Behavior, 51(7), 817-825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2019.04.018.
Gunther, C. & Hopkins, L. C. (2015). A historical review of changes in nutrition standards of
USDA child meal programs relative to research findings on the nutritional adequacy of
program meals and the diet and nutritional health of participants: Implications for future
research and the summer food service program. Nutrients, 7(12), 10145-10167.
doi: 10.3390/nu7125523.
Heidari, M., Kavosi, E., Kavosi, Z., Moghadami, M., & Rostami, Z. (2014). Prevalence and
determinants of under-nutrition among children under six: A cross-sectional survey in
Fars province, Iran. Int J Health Policy Manag, 3(2), 71-76. doi:
10.15171/ijhpm.2014.63.
Kaur, J., Lamb, M., & Ogden, C. (2015). The association between food insecurity and obesity in
children-The national health and nutrition examination survey. Journal of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(5), 751-758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.01.003.
Leigh, K. (2019). Theories 3 [PowerPoint slides].