Food provides the energy and nutrients that babies need to be healthy. For a baby, breast milk is best. It has all the necessary vitamins and minerals. Infant formulas are available for babies whose mothers are not able to or decide not to breastfeed. Infants are usually ready to eat solid foods at about 6 months of age. Check with your health care provider for the best time for your baby to start. Malnutrition is a lack of proper nutrition, caused by lack of food, or eating the wrong foods. Some symptoms of malnutrition are fatigue, dizziness, and weight loss.
Iran agrees that babies need to be be treated and provided with the correct vitamins and minerals and is working to solve these problems in our country. Although Iran has no data for under-five overweight, it faces a malnutrition burden in both its wasting and stunting levels. The national prevalence of under-five stunting is 6.8%, which is significantly less than the developing country average of 25%. Iran’s under-five wasting prevalence of 4% is also less than the developing country average of 8.9%. In Iran, 53.1% of infants under 6 months are exclusively breastfed. There is insufficient data on low birth weight. Iran’s adult population also face a malnutrition burden. 30.5% of women of reproductive age have anaemia, and 12.9% of adult women have diabetes, compared to 11.4% of men. Meanwhile, 32.2% of women and 19.3% of men have obesity.
A possible solution for this problem is a better implementation of FDA regulations worldwide for the correct nutrition and healthy eating programs. These programs could be easily implemented and should be for the sake of the healthy growth and development of babies worldwide.
- James Sobol
