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How does environment affect child development
Factors that influence the development of a child
How does environment affect child development
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A child who loses his or her parent is called orphan. A person who loses his or her spouse is called widow or widower. As hard as I looked for, I did not find a name to describe a parent who outlive his or her child, for such a tragedy remains unspeakable and unthinkable. A child dies every 10 seconds, and even more outrageous, almost 3 million babies die in the first month of life (UNICEF). The death of these babies before their first birthday is known as infant mortality. Most cases of infant deaths happen in less-developed countries, where babies often die at home, unnamed, and unrecorded. Primary factors contributing to infant mortality may include poverty, lack of access to quality education, and environmental pollution. First, poverty is the main cause of infant mortality. As defined by Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs.” (“Poverty”). Basic needs for babies are not more than food and proper medical care. Without good nutrition or effective medical care, their chances of survival are minimal. The poor countries struggle with malnutrition, which is reflected in the unequal distribution of food, as well as in the quality and measure of food. The lack of proper nutrition for babies or a diet low in calories, proteins, essential vitamins, and minerals is a sign of malnutrition. Moreover, as Kara Rogers presents in “The Science of Nutrition”, in some parts of Africa, “the practice of weaning breast-fed infants to a diet consisting chiefly of one kind of starchy food, such as cassava, may lead to protein deficiency” (94). Deficiencies in minerals, proteins, or vitamins have a serious impact on baby’s health and most of the times cause specific nutr... ... middle of paper ... ...se who survive have high risks of brain, respiratory, and digestive problems in early life.” Newborns exposure to a high concentration of various pollutants like car exhaust, chemicals from factories, dust, pollen, mold, pesticides may lead to various respiratory problems, immune system disorders, cancer or even death. By and large, people tend to take for granted the delicious food they eat, the medicine they take, the clean water they drink and the fresh air they breathe. However, they should be aware that it is enough to blink twice, and a child is gone because he or she is starved, dehydrated, ill or exposed to unhealthy air. Just by taking a moment to think about it, to educate ourselves and to understand more deeply the factors that cause infant mortality, we become aware and ready to change something for all babies who are doomed to have an unfair destiny.
Infant mortality is considered a worldwide indicator of a nation’s health status. The United States still ranks 24th in infant mortality compared with other industrialized nations, even though infant mortality has declined steadily over the past several decades. Compared with the national average in 1996 of 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, the largest disparity is among blacks with a death rate of 14.2 per 1,000 in 1996 which is almost 2½ times that of white infants (6 deaths per 1,000 in 1996). American Indians as a whole have an infant death rate of 9 deaths per 1,000 in 1995, but some Indian communities have an infant mortality rate almost twice that of the national rate. The same applies to the Hispanic community, whose rate of 7.6 deaths per 1,000 births in 1995 doesn’t reflect the Puerto Rican community, whose rate was 8.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 1995.
In the United States, approximately 2 million children are living with life threatening conditions and 18,000 new born die within the first 28 days of life due to prematurity/immaturity, infection, and congenital anomalies annually (Thibeau 2012). Globally 450 newborns die every hour (Eden 2010).
Many questions about the causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also known as “crib death,” are still unresolved. The mysterious and elusive nature of SIDS creates problems, doubts, and more questions. This paper will present some of the most commonly asked questions as well as the answers that have been uncovered by scientists after years of research and study.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or "crib death" is an abrupt and inexplicable death of an apparently healthy infant. Most of the cases involve infants from ages 1-12 months, and the event occurs during the night. Various theories have been postulated from research results but without consistency of the etiology. Since the death is sudden, prior diagnostic criteria or patterns are not available for correlation, although some near-miss infants have been followed. A number of possibilities have been documented in current literature, to include beta-endorphin changes, abnormal temperature regulation, pineal abnormalities, carotid body irregularities, lead poisoning, elevated fetal hemoglobin, brainstem immaturity, and cerebral hypoperfusion. The following is an overview of these pathologies in their relation to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Every day, 370,000 babies are born into this world- each having the potential to live a prosperous and productive life. Unfortunately, some of these tiny, fragile humans do not live until their first birthday. The death of infants within the first year of life is known as infant mortality. There are many contributing factors as to why infant mortality may be high or low in a specific area. In order to measure the amount of deaths that occur in a particular region, the number of newborns that die before the age of one year old per 1,000 live births are recorded and is known as the infant mortality rate in that society. Generally, the infant mortality rate of a country directly reflects on the health-care system provided. Unfortunately, in today’s world, a child dies every four seconds.
Imagine one night you are putting your baby to sleep like you always do, when you wake up in the morning to find that your infant has all of the sudden passed away in their sleep. This phenomenon has become a parent’s worst fear. Their baby has passed away from sudden infant death syndrome and there is nothing they can do or could have done about it. SIDS is a real thing and has occurred all throughout history. It is very important to understand variables that can increase your chance of losing a baby to SIDS, looking for signs in their cry that could hint towards SIDS and taking every step you can to avoid sudden infant death syndrome from striking your family.
O'Connor, P. (2008, October 18). US infant mortality rate now worse than 28 other countries. Retrieved June 9, 2010, from World Socialist Web Site: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/mort-o18.shtml
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the most frequent cause of death between 1 month and 1 year of age (Naeye). SIDS is defined as the sudden death of any infant or young child that is unexpected by it’s history, and in which a thorough postmortem examination fails to determine an adequate cause (Hunt 1987). It is important to consider both aspects of this definition in order not to ‘overdiagnose’ SIDS. A mistake of this nature would occur with failure to report a previous history of seizures, or if at the time of the autopsy a differentiation between suffocation due to rebreathing and SIDS was not made (Kemp 1993). One of the major characteristics of SIDS is that of ‘silent death’, which occurs during a sleep period. The majority of SIDS cases are between 1-6 months, with the peak occurrence being between 2-4 months. Boys are affected more often than girls (Becker, 1990).
Niger and Sierra Leone, the two poorest countries in the world only have a GDP of around 500 dollars per capita. Which, compared to Canada’s 27,000 dollars per capita, is considerably low. In the 48 poorest countries, an average of 2$ a day is made by each working person. Imagine living off 2$ a day in Canada, you couldn’t even buy a Big Mac and a drink for 2$. This is making starvation a very serious problem in 3rd-world countries, not to mention their low immune systems, used for preventing disease, not working right from the lack of nutrition.
Even though there are numerous families that struggle to put food on the table, protein deficiency is rare in the United States, but can be seen in third world countries like Africa. However, protein deficiency disorders can occur even in the United States with people suffering from “alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, or certain intestinal tract disorders, [as well as] those who are elderly, have limited incomes, and are chronically ill”(Schiff 2013). Under nutrition of any kind is due to a lack of food in some fashion whether from crop failures, political unrest, or civil wars, but the etiology of Kwashiorkor and other protein deficiencies is often more complicated. Protein energy malnutrition (also known as PEM) affects people who do not consume sufficient amounts of protein. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 18% of children are underweight due to malnutrition of some kind, including protein-energy malnutrition. There are in fact two types of PEM, kwashiorkor and marasmus. Kwashiorkor is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in developing countries, primarily occurring where mothers breastfeed their infants until they give birth to another child. The older
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
Famine has struck parts of Africa several times during the 20th century, and to this day is still going strong. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the average African consumes 2300 kcal/day, less than the global average of 2700 kcal/day. Recent figures estimate that 316 million Africans, or approximately 35 percent of the continent's total population, is undernourished. Although hunger in Africa is hardly new, it now occurs in a world that has more than enough food to feed all its citizens. Moreover, while Africa's population is growing rapidly, it still has ample fertile land for growing food. Hunger therefore reflects not absolute food scarcity but rather people's lack of access to resources—whether at the individual, house-hold, comunity, or national leve that are needed to produce or purchase adequate food supplies. The reasons people cannot obtain enough food are: several different historical patterns of in equality. These patterns include the in equalities between Africa and its former colonisers or contemporary financiers, and between Africa's rich and poor. It also includes in equality between members of the same households, where food and the resources needed to obtain it (such as land and income) are often unevenly distributed between men and women, old and young. Whatever the reasons for food deprivation, when the result is malnutrition it can do damage, increasing diseases such as malaria, rickets, anemia, and perhaps acquired immune deficiency syndrome aka AIDS Mal-nourished children suffer stunted growth and, often, learning problems. Malnourished adults have less energy to work. Over the long term, inadequate nourishment can cast communities into a cycle o...
Children enter into this world helpless, unable to understand their surroundings. From the beginning, infants are completely dependent on the people around them for their every need. It is the responsibility of the parents to take care of and nurture their children and to make the right decisions that will benefit their life early on.
they create many breathing and heart conditions like cancer and other threats in the body, that is why children who are exposed through air pollutants are most likely to have pneumonia and asthma.
According to Beckstrand, Rawle, Callister, & Mandleco (2010) “Death of a child evokes deep feelings of tragedy, devastation, and painful confusion at the injustice of a life being ended prematurely.” (p. 544) These are the raw emotions that are prevalent when a child is dying. For the child and the family, these final fleeting m...