Nutritional Disorders of Children

Nutritional Disorders of Children is organized by Homestead Schools, Inc. This course has been approved for a maximum of 4 Contact Hour.

Learning Objectives:
After completing this course you will be able to:
Part I: Screening and Follow-up
• Plan a screening program aimed at identifying individuals in a community likely to be at nutritional risk.
• Formulate questions about diet and eating habits of children.
• Describe proper procedure to be employed to measure height and weight of children.
• Analyze and interpret assessments of small size for age or low weight for height measurements.
• Provide interpretation of excess weight for height.
• Describe the procedure for measurement of skin fold thickness.
• List desired hemoglobin concentration in children of various ages.
• Formulate an interview questionnaire by nutritionist.

Part II: Prevention of Common Disorders
Chapter 1: Prevention of Obesity
• Define obesity.
• Describe three factors that provide early prediction of later obesity.
• Explain hyperplasia of adipose tissue.
• Discuss clinical studies that have correlated the imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure to obesity.
• Discuss the importance of establishing early good eating habits.

Chapter 2: Diet and Atherosclerosis
• Define atherosclerosis. Discuss the controversy surrounding atherosclerosis and the management of diet in early childhood.
• Discuss opinions opposing and favoring change in children’s diets.
• Discuss the potential hazards of altering diets of infants and children.

Chapter 3: Prevention of Dental Caries
• Identify 3 prerequisites for production of dental caries.
• Discuss the epidemiology of dental caries.
• Discuss how various dietary factors affect the incidence of dental caries.
• List in the order of importance, cariogenicity factors of 6 dietary habits.
• Describe how various carbohydrates serve as substrates for the production of plaque and organic acids.
• List foods to be avoided by children between meals.
• Describe the “nursing bottle caries” and its causative factors.
• Describe how fluoride helps protect teeth against caries.

Chapter 4: Prevention of Iron-Deficiency Anemia
• Define iron deficiency anemia in infants and children.
• List 3 groups in which the concentrations of hemoglobin are below the normal range.
• Describe the iron requirement for male and female children in various age groups.
• Describe the absorption rates of iron naturally present in foods from animal sources and vegetable sources.
• Distinguish between absorption of hemeiron and non-hemeiron.
• Discuss means of achieving dietary requirements for infants, preschool children, school age children, males-years of age, and females-years of age