The Institute for Neuro - Physiological Psychology
1:4 children in the UK is obese when they start school - October 12, 2007
Figures quoted in the news yesterday concerning the rise in childhood obesity make grim reading for the future health and well being of these children. There are many contributory factors - some obvious - others more insidious.
Weight gain occurs as a direct result of a balance between energy input, in terms of food ingested, and energy ouput. The amount of food required to maintain a healthy weight varies according to individual rate of metabolism and many factors can influence metabolic rate. Obvious factors include, amount and types of food eaten against amount of exercise taken. Less obvious factors are use of the contraceptive pill, early feeding patterns and social factors which over the last 40 years have altered the eating and exercise habits of the nation.
Children’s eating habits begin before birth with the diet of the mother. In the later stages of pregnancy the amniotic fluid surrounding the foetus contains flavours from the mother’s diet and the developing baby can develop a “taste” for certain flavours such as sweet and salt. After birth, nature has designed the perfect food for babies in the form of human breast milk, which contains exactly the correct ratio of essential fatty acids needed for brain development, bacteria and flora to prime the infant gut for digestion and which adapts its content from hour to hour to the needs of the maternal-infant environment.
“A study carried out by scientists at the
The differences between breast and bottle fed babies only became apparent after weaning. Infants given formula milk were less likely to eat vegetables and fruit, and more likely to consume commercial infant drinks, compared with infants who were breastfed. In breastfed babies, milk intake was lower when solid foods were introduced, a natural adjustment for the calorific intake provided by an additional food source. In formula fed babies, milk intake remained the same once solids were introduced. The study suggests two possible trends: Firstly, children’s taste preferences may be affected by being fed on formula instead of breast milk and that early taste experience sets up a desire for higher calorie foods in later life. Secondly, that breast fed babies self-regulate their milk intake once solid foods have been introduced whereas formula fed babies continue to be given, and in most cases take, the same amount.”
Added to this are changes in modern living: Centrally heated buildings, which means less energy from carbohydrate and fat sources is needed to keep warm during the winter months; children taking less exercise in terms of walking from place to place; television and computer games, which increase time spent in sedentary as opposed to physically active pursuits; loss of daily physical education as part of the school curriculum; fewer number of families who sit down to a home cooked meal every day; loss of domestic science as part of the regular curriculum and children no longer weighed and measured as part of the school health check on all children.
Sitting down to formal meals is important because mealtimes tend to take longer when they are social occasions. It takes up to 20 minutes for a part of the brain involved in satiety to register when a person is “full”. When food is gobbled, the satiety centre does not have time to register before more has been eaten; home cooked meals tend to have a better nutritional content and contain less hidden fats, salts and sugar (also a fat) than ready-made or processed meals. The availability of fast foods with high carbohydrate and fat content temporarily fool the brain into feeling satisfied but are followed by a blood sugar “low” with craving for more of the same. Packing of food means that the buyer is encouraged to buy more than is actually required. If we are to prevent an obesity epidemic in our young, changes need to be made at all levels of education - pre-conceptual awareness, maternal feeding choices, education of schoolchildren in the science of nutrition, the arts of cooking and the importance of daily exercise.
[i] Noble S, Emmett P, 2006. Differences in weaning practice, food and nutrient intake between breast and formula fed 4 month old infants in
[ii] Owen GC, Martin RM, Whincup PH, Davey Smith G, Cook DG, 2005, Effect of infant feeding on the risk of obesity across the life course: A quantitative review of published evidence. Pediatrics. 115/5:1367-1377
[iii] Heinig MJ, Nommsen LA, Peerson JM, Lonnderdal B, Dewey KG, 1993. Energy and protein intakes of breast-fed and formula-fed infants during the first year of life and their association with growth velocity. The DARLING Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 58. 152-161.
[iv] Lucas A, Sarson DL, Blackburn AA, Adrian TE, Aynsley-Green A, Bloom SR, 1980. Breast vs bottle: endocrine responses are different with formula feeding. Lancet. 1:1267-1269
[v] Von Kries R, Kolezko B, Sauerwald T, et al., 1999. Breast feeding and obesity: cross sectional study. British Medical Journal. 319:147-150.
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Lost for words - children’s reading week - October 22nd - October 9, 2007
October 22nd sees the beginning of children’s reading season on Channel 4 - a season dedicated to encouraging and supporting reading in children. This is an important initiative as one survey carried out for Granada TV last year revealed that 40% of parents admitted that they had never read to their child. The desire to read and developing “readiness” in terms of hearing the rhythms of speech embedded in story telling, begins with being read to as a small child. One study found that early reading experience and an extensive vocabulary is associated with delayed cognitive decline in old age.
Other children have a desire to read but are “lost with words” because they lack the eye movements necessary to visually scan along a line of print, the ability to decode letters into sounds or hear the individual sounds within words, which is necessary to word build using phonics. In many cases these problems can be identified and corrected using specific exercise programmes to improve control of eye movements and/or listening programmes to improve auditory discrimination. For further information of these programmes see www.inpp.org.uk/learningdifficulties.
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Tories will ensure more playgrounds for children - October 5, 2007
Subject: Play matters
Regeneration of playgrounds is a beginning, but play is about far more than a visit to the playground.
Play begins with mother-infant interaction in the first days and weeks of life. Play is about freedom to move and interaction with the environment both physical and social. Baby equipment may be great as labour saving devices for parents but the best playgrounds of all for babies are those from which there is no commercial gain - mother’s body in the first weeks, and the floor, in the first months of life. From the floor a baby is free to move its arms, reach, stretch and support its body; to kick its legs and learn to hold its head up. These are the first lessons in coordination and postural control.
Free movement in the early years is experienced as joy, and when there is joy, children learn. Swings, slides and roundabouts are great for providing stimulation to the balance mechanism, but the same thrill can be derived from rough and tumble play with Dad, rolling down a grassy bank and playing roly poly or turning somersaults on the floor. Children need the opportunity to play in any suitable environment and the process of play is the mother of imagination and invention. We need not only formal playgrounds but free space to play, time for parents to play with their children and an understanding that more learning takes place during physical play than in the sedentary activities of watching TV or playing with computer games.
Children develop as a result of physical interaction with the environment and social engagement with the people around them on a daily basis. Although the process of maturation is innate, the architecture of the developing brain is built as a result of experience. Children’s learning begins with their body and movement is a child’s first language. Non-verbal communication (body language) will be responsible for up 90% of effective communication for the remainder of life. Children need opportunity for physical play at every stage in life, not just to develop physically but also to develop imagination, communication and self-regulation.
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