Proper nutrition important for pre-schoolers

MANILA, Philippines - Developing good nutrition and proper dietary habits among pre-schoolers is essential to a healthy adult population in the future, according to a Filipino nutritionist.

Dr. Bernadette Bordador, officer-in-charge of the Nutrition Office of the Valenzuela Health Department, says vegetable consumption among Filipino children is very low and that many pre-schoolers prefer fast food.

Bordador, however, says children’s preference for chips, fast food, sodas and instant food results in unhealthy adult population. 

“The effects of malnutrition in the first two years of life can have irreversible damage to a child in terms of cognition, growth and development,” she says.

This eventually leads to health problems in the child’s adult life such as undernutrition, obesity, and diseases of the heart, brain, kidneys and major blood vessels.

Bordador recommends that after six months of breastfeeding, babies should be introduced to complementary foods such as mashed cooked vegetables.

“Introducing vegetables as early as the seventh month in infants enables them to recognize different tastes and textures so that these foods will be familiar and therefore acceptable to them in the future,” she says.

To highlight the importance of vegetable consumption, the Department of Health is spearheading the celebration of the 38th Nutrition Month this July with the theme “Pagkain ng gulay ugaliin, araw-araw itong ihain.”

“It is imperative that younger children are properly nourished. Well-nourished children perform better when they go to school and subsequently become more productive citizens of their communities,” says Bordador.

Aware of the importance of proper nutrition among young kids, CDO Foodsphere Inc., through its corporate social responsibility arm Odyssey Foundation Inc., has supported supplemental feeding and nutrition programs in Valenzuela City for the last five years.

CDO Foodpshere president Jerome Ong says millions of Filipino children suffer from undernutrition mainly because of widespread poverty in the country. “Children should have access to proper nutrition, if they are to become productive members of our society,” says Ong.

Odyssey Foundation implements a program called “Gabay Nutrisyon” specifically to address child malnutrition through partnerships with local governments and other organizations. 

Over 7,000 children from all over the country have benefitted from the Gabay Nutrisyon supplemental feeding program of CDO Foodsphere, Odyssey Foundation since 2005.

The health and nutrition initiatives are carried out in partnership with private organizations like United Laboratories, ABS-CBN Foundation, GMA Kapuso Foundation and other church-based institutions. About 2,300 of these children are from poor communities in Valenzuela City.

Odyssey Foundation was founded on May 2004 as a non-stock, non-profit organization with the main goal of helping save thousands of poor children suffering from malnutrition.