We're going to look at physical development during middle
childhood by looking at brain development growth nutrition
and kind of some issues related to nutrition.
So let's look at brain development first.
So the brain reaches adult size about H7.
And so the early years are really important
for brain development in terms of making sure
that children get the right physical environment in terms
of getting appropriate nourishment, but also the kind
of cognitive environment so that their brain can make all the
connections than it needs to but so a lot
of things are really being laid, they will continue
to be refined especially throughout childhood,
but by 7:00, it's already adult size.
Um brain development during the middle childhood years resulting
improvements in logic planning and memory the coordination
between the hemispheres so we know that the left hemisphere
and the right hemisphere do a better job of talking
to one another with maturation attention span also increases
so children are able to attend to something longer
as they get older and their reaction time and the speed
with which they process information also improves
with time and part of that.
Is that the connections to the brain are being formed
but also the myelination is happening.
And so all of those connections and neurons are being insulated
so that they can be more efficient.
And so and that's why fat is an important part of the diet
because brain cells are insulated with fat.
So in terms of physical growth growth is pretty slow
and steady during these years around five
to seven pounds per year in about 2 inches a year.
You'll notice that children begin to slim down at this age
and gain muscle strength.
And so, you know, it's not uncommon to hear people talk
about children losing their baby fat as they go
into the school age years.
Their bones are lengthening their muscles are
getting stronger.
They're they're having now faster growth
in their extremities versus their trunk which allows them
to have a more adult like proportion.
So they start to look more like miniature adults versus children
in terms of body size
and proportion motor skill Improvement happens during these
years to significant changes, right?
So there I hander I hand coordination
and fine motor skills allow for better writing and cutting
and the refinement in their motor skills allows them
to engage in sports
and extracurricular activities successfully and enjoyably
and so it's not uncommon.
And for children to learn to ride their bike
without training wheels during these years and it depends
on if it's at the beginning of these years or at the end
of the years for children and some actually do it before
but I think those are the exceptions to the rule.
So you'll notice that children are really becoming comfortable
in their bodies and more skilled
with how they use their bodies both with whole body
and large motor activities, but also the fine motor things
which is, you know, why read writing instruction tends
to happen during these years
because now they're finally having the skills necessary
to do that successfully.
All of this needs to be fueled by good nutrition and we know
that habits and attitudes toward food are influenced
by many different things are family environment the trends
in our current Society individual taste preferences.
And sometimes that's a cultural influences.
Well as well as the messages that the media sends
about food and what is cool.
And what is uncool.
And sometimes we inadvertently associate healthy food
with being Less desirable and so we have to work really hard
to direct children towards healthy choices
and give them nutrient-dense Foods.
Right? So we talked about foods
that are have empty calories, right?
So, you know, they don't have a lot of the vitamins and minerals
and things that children need to be healthy.
So parents and caregivers and the adults
in children's lives really need
to reinforce good habits introduce new foods
into the diet.
So that children can expand their Taste and really try
to be really good role models for children so that
when children are looking at the adults in their lives,
they see people that are eating well and healthy.
Unfortunately the diet today,
especially in the United States has shown huge increases
in fat the processed foods that we you know are very convenient
for families and is well
as portion size portion size has gone up greatly
and that is problematic in many ways.
Because often we are providing more calories
than we have energy needs and energy needs vary based on lots
of things including children's growth how active they are
as well as their gender.
And so these numbers are a little bit different
from the numbers in the book.
I think these are more accurate.
I did go to the source cited in the book.
I think we've got maybe some improvements to make
in that section, but girls in the early part
of middle childhood may need anywhere
from 1,200 to 18 calories.
And then as they get older that increases to 1400
up to 2200 calories boys need a little bit more calories.
So their range is from 1,200 to 2,000 calories
in those early years and then
from 1,600 all the way up to 2600.
And so if you're thinking about active level the source
that you can look at talks about, you know,
not active somewhat active and very active
and so obviously the child that's very active is going
to need more calories because they're burning more calories.
Ruiz versus a child that's not active
and this video is being recorded in the middle
of the covid-19 pandemic and I can't help but think
of how many children who were very active are now maybe only
somewhat active or maybe even not active and I'm thinking
of my own children, even for example,
the this chapter also talks a little bit about vegetarianism
and so families or children themselves may choose
to pursue a vegetarian diet for a variety
of reasons whether that's religious.
Or moral or ethical or health-related?
And so there are different kinds of levels
or categories of vegetarians.
So vegetarians eat eggs, in addition lacto-ovo do both milk
and eggs black to a very strict vegetarians are milk
and vegans are very strict with no animal products and people
that follow a strict vegan diet have to plan really carefully
to make sure they meet all of their nutritional needs
because there are no and you'll learn more About this
if you take the health safety nutrition class,
there are no products that aren't animal products that have
that have the complete amino acids
that essential amino acids.
So you have to make sure
that you're complimenting the foods together correctly
to get all of those in your diet can be done.
You just have to be thoughtful about it
and that image there is actually a vegetarian school lunch not
in the US, but I thought it was a good example
to show we worry about malnutrition.
and specifically the chapter looks at malnutrition in terms
of food insecurity and so food insecurity is not having enough
food to necessarily or the stability in your food source
to know where your next meal is going to come from
and it can vary to from occasional like,
oh we ran out of groceries to you know,
a very consistent hunger
on a daily basis not getting enough food on a daily basis
and when it's you know a regular occurrence,
it can lead to Efficiencies
and there's new deficiencies nutritional deficiencies can
cause stunted growth susceptibility to illness
and even developmental delays.
There are programs such as the national school lunch program
and the school breakfast program
that helped provide school-age children access
to nutritious foods during the school day
and sometimes even beyond that.
Sometimes those school lunches are the only balanced nutrition
children have access to and there's also summer programs
because we recognize that for children who aren't in school.
It's very problematic to not have access to those meals.
It's also really important to kind of keep on your awareness
of food allergies and intolerances.
So 3 million children under age 18 are allergic
to at least one food and an allergy is different
from an intolerance because an allergy is an actual
immune response.
So you put something in your body
that your immune system reacts to and when
that reactions really severe it can cause an anaphylactic
reaction which causes the airway to swell
and can cut off a person's ability to breathe and so
in an instance where a child has potential allergy
that can result in that you may need to have an EpiPen
around handy in case that happens
where an intolerance is more of an unpleasant reaction,
but it's not an immune response.
So a common one is lactose intolerance and so often people
that have lactose intolerance when they drink milk
or eat milk products, they get an upset stomach and some
of the the stomach symptoms that come
from that it's not an immune response,
but it's still unpleasant.
And something that you wouldn't want to go through if possible.
Nutrition is really important because of the rates of children
that are overweight and obese and we know
that excess weight is associated
with health problems heart problems diabetes,
you know numerous concerns stress on the joints.
It also impairs brain functioning and it's damaging
to Social and emotional well-being because of bullying
and teasing and taunting and just feeling not good
about yourself while it's a little bit controversial the the
current way that we Measure whether
or not a person not just children
that a person is overweight or obese is looking
at body mass index and when a body mass indexes
over the 85th percentile.
So it's higher than 85%
of people the same age or the same height.
They are considered overweight and when it's
over the 95th percentile, it is obesity
and unfortunately having weight problems in childhood can go
on into adulthood and so So it's you know,
ideally we keep children a healthy weight and
and we set them off for a healthy start to their adulthood
and it's important to notice that issues
with excess weight should be handled
with behavioral intervention teaching self-control
and making sure that children have access
to nutritionally dense foods.
Not just empty calories versus diets diets don't tend
to be successful and they can actually be harmful.
And that's it for physical development in middle childhood
or at least for this mini lecture video.