Infant Nutrition: The first 1000 days and the long-term impact on health

 It has been recognized by health experts, that the first 1000 days – from conception to a child’s second birthday – is a critical window of opportunity to influence the future health outcomes. This critical period is the most influential time in a young child’s life, their behaviors and the nutrition they get in this time helps to set their future foundations for life and can have an impact on their health and happiness later in life.

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Importance of breastfeeding on infant nutrition

Global guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant’s life, and breastfeeding in combination with suitable, nutritionally balanced complementary foods beyond that. Breastfeeding is undoubtedly the best method of infant feeding, not only because breast milk is nutritionally superior, but it also has unique advantages that are not possible to replicate with bottle-feeding.

Nutrition in this period is particularly crucial. Early nutrition wields both short and long-term effects on the health of an infant, by programming the infant’s development . Evidence suggests that this ‘developmental programming’ has a long-lasting effect on the risk of obesity in later life, and in turn, associated non-communicable diseases; type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.