Infant Nutrition Discussion

After watching the video clips related to Infancy, please briefly address the following questions:

• What information surprised you or was of particular interest that you learned from these videos and why?
• Culture and parenting choices (may be answered together in 1 larger paragraph)
  • How does culture play a part in the parents’ decision between breastmilk and formula?
  • What would you say is the prevailing culture currently around infant feeding?
  • How does new scientific evidence change cultural perceptions over time?
  • In what other areas of infant development could culture and societal pressures significantly influence parenting choices?

Nutritional Requirements and Energy Expenditure

The needs of infants determine the amount of nutrition required to maintain and support adequate growth and optimal health while maintaining homeostasis with other nutrients. Nutritional requirements vary in infancy, and growth patterns are closely linked to optimized nutrition. The use of standardized definitions is essential when plotting growth in infancy. Energy expenditure for basal metabolic processes, regular physical activities, as well as unexpected increased energy utilization for pathological conditions, determine the infant’s caloric intake. A healthy child from birth to 1 year should receive around 100 kcal/kg/day. Neonatal caloric requirements are higher at about 110–135 kcal/kg/day.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

Of the total energy requirement, a healthy infant utilizes about 40-60 kcal/kg/day for basal metabolic rate. Thermoregulation plays a massive role in early infancy, requiring a significant amount of energy expenditure. This is even higher in smaller preterm infants with minimal subcutaneous fat stores. Feeding, digestion, absorption, storage, and elimination also require a vast amount of energy, often up to 30-50 kcal/kg/day. Preterm and sick infants often require higher amounts of energy to maintain adequate growth. As infants get older, their energy requirements decrease, with boys requiring more than girls usually on account of weight.

Nutritional needs are objectively defined collectively using the term ‘dietary reference intakes.’ Estimated average requirements (EAR) refers to the minimum amount of a nutrient that is required to meet the needs of half the population. Since EAR only covers about half of the population, a 20% higher limit is used as recommended dietary allowances (RDA). RDA refers to a sufficient amount of average daily dietary intake that meets the nutrient requirement for most of the healthy population at a particular stage. Adequate intake (AI) is the acceptable range of nutrient intake based on healthy populations in cases with inadequate evidence to use EAR or RDA. Tolerable upper intake levels (UL) are the highest levels of nutrient intake that are acceptable without causing adverse effects. In situations requiring close monitoring of infant growth, nutrient requirements can be measured using these parameters to maintain an objective log of nutrient intake during periods of growth faltering.

Nutrient Profiles: Macronutrients

Macronutrients include large nutrient molecules that provide the primary nutritional source of energy and substrate, playing a vital anabolic role in building tissues and in growth. These are broadly grouped into proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

Proteins

Proteins are building blocks that play a significant anabolic role in building muscle and tissues. Protein accounts for about 15% of total energy intake. Structurally, proteins are large molecules comprised of chains of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. They can be classified based on the number of amino acids in the protein chain into dipeptides, oligopeptides, or polypeptides. Complex folding of the longer protein chains into three-dimensional structures further results in a tertiary modification, adding complexity to the protein structure.