Annales 79.2 - Children‘s Diets in a Changing World

In 1900, 36% of children died before the age of 5; in 2017 the rate is at 4%. Great progress has been made in improving global child nutrition, but significant challenges remain. While the rate of child undernutrition is slowly decreasing, obesity levels are rising rapidly. This increases risk of non-communicable disease which could have social and economic consequences as well as reducing longevity for individuals. Climate change now also poses a new threat to food security, making it harder to maintain progress on child nutrition. No country in the world is currently on course to meet Sustainable Development Goals on diets and the food system, thus collaborative efforts are needed to take steps to continually answer old and new challenges to good nutrition.

Breastfeeding has established benefits for both infants and mothers. In low-income countries, it reduces infant mortality up to tenfold and helps to prevent conditions such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Defining and measuring breastfeeding can be challenging, but the evidence suggests increased levels in high-income countries and continued high levels in middle and low-income countries. Even with the positive result, strengthening the campaign towards breastfeeding is still best. This may include support from family, partners and the wider community can be crucial in overcoming barriers to breastfeeding. Governments also boost breastfeeding by adopting policies such as maternity leave, provision of support services in hospitals and regulation of formula marketing.

Food production contributes substantially to environmental degradation, from emission of greenhouse gases to water consumption and biodiversity loss. Taking this into consideration, a healthy diet is now being viewed in terms of the impact on the planet as well as meeting individual nutritional needs and health goals. A shift to sustainable diets with high levels of plant-based foods has been shown to help address health issues such as obesity while also reducing the impact on the planet. However, early intervention is needed to establish these dietary practices in children for maximized health benefits.

Obesity has increased tenfold between 1975 and 2016 and it is set to affect 25% of all children by 2050. Thus, a new focus is given on preventing obesity. Aside from this, it was found that prevention of obesity is more effective than attempts to treat the condition. With a child’s dietary habits largely established by the age of two, early infancy is a crucial period for obesity prevention. However, this effort does not end with the caretaker and the infants, as the most effective interventions will involve multiple settings including the family, healthcare providers, schools, community, and government to create an environment geared towards healthy dietary patterns and lifestyles.