Poor nutrition in a person’s early life is liked to impairment in neural development which leads to low intelligence quotient.

The mixture of nutritional factors and growth hormones in breast milk has been attributed to enhanced cognitive development, as tested especially with regard to high levels of intelligence quotient, attention and concentration and success in school.

Dr Richard Munyaneza, an intern doctor at King Faisal hospital in Kigali, says that many organisms can offset some of the changes associated with early poor nutrition by modifying their physical development.

For example, poorly nourished children can undergo a period of accelerated growth once their diet improves, ultimately appearing normal as an adult.

But such compensatory measures may come at a price, with cognitive and developmental disabilities emerging later in life.

"These results suggest that poor early nutrition can have long lasting negative consequences for cognitive ability in human beings”, the doctor says adding that recent scientific research postulates that learning defects may stem from behavioural, hormonal, and neural changes.

It's likely that resources normally dedicated to these pathways are diverted to support accelerated growth, short changing the opted pathway.

He says that future studies are needed to identify the underlying causes of impaired learning speed, which is an essential step in determining how to manage growth and nutrition for low birth weight babies and avoid the costs associated with compensatory growth.

"The effects of malnutrition in early childhood can be devastating and permanent; children should be well nourished during the pre-natal period since the first years of life can have a profound effect on their health status, as well as their ability to learn, communicate, socialize, reason and adapt to their environment”, says doctor Munyaneza.

He explains that all parents and guardians have to understand their role to ensure proper survival of their children. This will prepare them for challenges later in life and enable them to make contributions to the social and economic development of their countries and communities.

However, the doctor says that a well breast-fed child is saved from all malnutrition linked illnesses. Human milks still remains the single most important nutritional and bio-active substance available to the newborn.

Its importance is endorsed by the fact that breast feeding saves lives and reduces illnesses. Breastfed children are less likely to contract diarrhoea, respiratory illness, childhood lymphomas and other infections.

According to the doctor, breast milk also protects against bacteraemia, meningitis, botulism and juvenile diabetes. Important to note is that breastfeeding fosters optimum cognitive development.

Breastfeeding also fosters optimal parenting which ensures the existence of a strong mother to child bond. The child learns to trust in human closeness and cooperation through the mother. Breast-fed children are rarely victims of child abuse and neglect.

The doctor suggests that there are measures that can be done to overcome this problem. He points out that the longer the developmental delays remain uncorrected, the greater the chance of permanent effects.

The first measure is to intervene during pregnancy and in the first two to three years of life. This includes ensuring food security for poor households, educating parents and family members to understand the importance of nutrition in early childhood, protecting children from infections with measures like immunization, provision of safe water and sanitation.

The doctor also notes that pregnant women need to have a well balanced diet in order to overcome problems linked to effects of poor nutrition during intra-uterine life for the foetus.

It is well understood that problems such as delayed physical growth and motor development, lower intelligence quotient, greater degree of behavioural problems and deficient social skills at school are caused by poor diet for expecting mothers.

Other problems that come with unbalanced diet for mothers include decreased attention, deficient learning, lower educational achievements and magnified effects of other diseases.

Elements required for proper growth of young children. Iron is necessary for the correct development of most of the cellular functions and it is absolutely critical during pre-natal period and early years.

Iodine deficiency: iodine is necessary for the development of brain in order to produce an adequate amount of thyroid hormones.

It is critical during foetal and postnatal life.
With good nutrition for both expecting mothers and the infant child, such problems like impairment in neural development which leads to low intelligence quotient can never occur to children.

The writer is a general medical practitioner

E-mail: josephmunich06@yahoo.co.uk