Unit 6 Assignment 1

Unit 6: Children’s Physical Development, Care and Health NeedsAim: Understand the physical development and care needs of children and approaches to their healthy development.Scenario: You are working as an early year’s professional within a day nursery that caters for children from birth to 5 years. They also have an after-school club that accepts children from the primary school next door. ]P1: Explain the importance of care routines for meeting children’s physical care needs to support a healthy lifestyle. Nutritious Diet Food contains protein, carbohydrates, fats, water, vitamin and minerals. Nutrients are the way our bodies take in and use food to maintain that the body will function properly and a foundation of having a good health. A good diet is important for growth and functioning of our bodies. A balanced diet is key to eating healthy because it will provide all the nutrients that young children need in order to grow. Practitioners that are giving young children an healthy balanced diet, the practitioners are ensuring that the children are getting all the importance minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. However, young children need to take certain nutrients for a healthy growth and development. It is important that young children take calcium and vitamin d as it is important for normal growth and the development of bones. Also, iron is important to take for young children as it helps and supports their normal cognitive development. Finally, vitamin D will help the children’s immune system. Rickets Rickets is a bone disease which causes weak and soft bones. The bones can bend. It most commonly happens when bones are growing. Rickets is caused by lack of low vitamin D. The signs and symptoms of rickets are: Legs are in an abnormal shapePoor growthLate in crawling and walkingVegetarians Vegetarians and vegans dieting have become popular. Most parents are raising their children to have a plant-based diet. Young children need to have energy in order to stay active as well as developing. Practitioners have to ensure that their diet is balanced with enough nutrients and vitamins. Vegetarian diets are lower in saturated fats, cholesterol and animal protein. There are many reasons why people choose to be vegetarians which might be parents’ preference, health reasons, religion or even based on cultural belief. Also, there might reasons like concerned about the animals and the environment. It is challenging to get the nutrients that the children need. Calcium helps to build and keep strong teeth and bones. Dairy foods are the highest in calcium. However, vegetables such as broccoli are good plant source when they are eaten. An important vitamin which is vitamin D, it plays an important role to bone health. Protein helps to maintain healthy skin, bone, muscles and organs. Vegetarian diets that don’t include eggs and fish are less active. Omega-3 fatty acid is helpful towards the health of the heart. Iron is important for red blood cells, sources such as lentils and whole grained products are good to boost iron. Also to help young children absorb iron, practitioners can provide fruit and vegetables such as strawberries and cabbage to the help the children to have a good level of iron. Rest and sleep Rest and sleep is important for their health and well being. Sleep is needed to have a healthy brain function and growth; it enables the body’s cells to repair themselves. Also, sleep helps to regulate the hormone which is responsible for growth and for appetite. However, sleep is also needed for other reasons such as sleep helps for concentration, brain functions is helped by power of sleep. When young children are tired, they will find it difficult to concentrate. During sleep, the events of the day are remembered as memories. Young children who don’t have enough sleep will find it hard to learn because they are unable to remember as much. The immune system repairs the cells as well as fight infections. Young children who are not getting enough sleep will have a high risk of getting sick which will affect their cognitive development that will lead the child to take off days from school. By taking days off from school, the child will fall behind missing out information; this will cause stress releasing hormones which are called cortisol. There are signs when a child is tired:Cry Challenging behaviour Start to fall asleep when it is not sleeping timeLethargic A lack of concentrationSleep is important for physical development as it helps to remove waste from muscles and allows the muscles to relax. Cognitive development is affect by sleep because the child will not be able to consolidate their learning. Young children need sleep in order to have energy and be alert at all time to learn. Emotions can be affected if the child has got enough rest, it is important for emotional development as the child might find it difficult to process emotions. When a child is tired, the child will be less active which will make them feel more tired as well as it will make the child socialise less with others.