Įnergy needs depend on basal metabolic rate (BMR), growth processes, diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) and physical activity level (PAL). In these cases, a medical assessment followed by an adequate nutritional intervention is required. A weight > 97° centile means overfeeding, while a weight < 3° centile or a relevant deflection of the growth curve may indicate inadequate nutrition or underlying disease. The growth curves of the World Health Organization (WHO) represent an essential tool for a proper assessment of growth. A complete anthropometric assessment should be done at birth, at 1 month of life and every 3 months. In the first 6 months it is recommended to weigh the infant every week, in order to assess whether the feeding is sufficient to ensure a proper growth. Weight and length normal increases are signs of good health in addition to this, the increase of head circumference reflects the increase of brain mass, which usually reaches the double of its volume during the end of the first year of life. Nutritional assessment in the first 6 months requires a strict observation of feeding and a determination of length, weight and head circumference. Besides this, the infant quickly develops new neurocognitive and motor functions. It gradually decreases during the successive months. Īfter a physiological weight loss in the first days caused by a loss of extracellular fluids, growth speed reaches its maximum in the first month (about 180 g/week), with a subsequent decrease in the second month (about 140 g/week). Growth is very rapid at this stage: at 6 months the weight of the birth is usually already doubled, with a length increase of 15 cm and head circumference increase of 8 cm. The first 6 months of children’s life are characterized by the rapid synthesis of new tissues and by an exclusively milky feeding. Since both macro and micronutrients’ deficiencies can have a significant impact on the whole function and physiology of the human body, particularly on the various processes of growth, a step-by-step distinction and knowledge regarding their influence during the different times of pediatric age can be a useful guide for the clinical practice and constitutes the main propose of this review. They principally include vitamins (both fat-soluble and water-soluble) and minerals. Micronutrients are instead those components of diet that do not provide a significant contribution on the caloric intake, but can still be considered crucial for health and vital functions, even if needed in smaller amounts. Macronutrients can be considered as the main components of different tissues, and they constitute the total amount of the caloric intake, meaning the principal energy source of the human body they are mainly distinguished in carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Nutritional science principally distinguishes two different classes among its classifications: macronutrients and micronutrients. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
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