The Effects of Nutrition on Learning

It has been known for quite some time that good nutrition has an impact on a child’s cognitive and physical development. While studies have proven this, there are still children in the United States that are undernourished. Food insecurity occurs in children when it is not known where food for their next meal will come. According to the USDA, there are 16.7 million children in the United States under the age of 18 that live in this condition. This is most common in low-income families, where there is already a higher occurrence of family stressors. All of these factors combine and have a stake in a child’s brain development, which can in turn impact how a child behaves, as well as how their body develops. This is especially important in the first 3 years of life, when establishing and maintaining good nutrition can have a larger impact on not only brain and physical development, it can also have implications on a child’s academic achievement. Before we can start to delve into the impacts of a child’s nutrition, we must first look at the mother’s nutritional habits and how they affect fetal development. Before the mother even knows she is pregnant, the unborn fetus’ brain has already begun to form. To promote healthy fetal growth and development, a nutritious, healthy diet is recommended. This diet should also include the intake of a daily multi-vitamin that has folic acid. If a pregnant mother does not have a proper, nutrient-rich diet, or especially if it is inadequate, low infant birth weight and problems with brain development become concerns. A study was done in the Netherlands during WWII, where a famine had struck, confirms these outcomes. Pregnant women affected by the famine during their first trimester had a higher likelihood of miscarriage as well as a higher risk of physical birth defects. Pregnant women that made it to their second trimester were more likely to have babies born with low birth weight and smaller heads. (Berk, 2012) A