Practical Paediatric Nutrition

Practical Paediatric Nutrition deals with conventional children's nutrition in a clinical or community setting. The book reviews nutritional assessment using three complementary methods, namely, clinical nutritional assessment (symptoms: physical wasting, rickets), anthropometric assessment (manifestations: abnormal measurements, skinfold thickness), and biochemical assessment (analysis: hematology, urine). The text also addresses nutrition in pregnancy and its effects on the fetus. The book notes that selected food supplementation has negligible effects in the mean fetal weight of malnourished populations compared with well-nourished populations. Placental insufficiency can also lead to fetal malnutrition. The text discusses breast feeding, cow's milk formulas, soya-based formulas, and "follow-on formulas." For low birth weight infants, the choice of feeds are the infants' own mothers' milk, expressed or banked; other banked breast milk; fortified human milk (own mother's or banked); standard infant formula; or preterm infant formula. The book also explores the problem of weaning and failure to gain height or weight at the expected rates. The book is helpful for pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists, nurses, practitioners in general medicine, and administrators of public health services.