Developmental Milestones and the Diet to Support Them

Posted by Shaheen Shaikh on May 2nd, 2018

Often, when children’s development is spoken about we tend to invariable speak about the milestones that children go through at the various stages of their age. So, before we dwell deep into the topic let’s take a look at what are these milestones, exactly?

Developmental milestones:

It is the ability of a child to perform certain age-appropriate activities at the right age. The developmental milestones involve physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and communication skills such as walking, talking, learning to share, recognizing certain sounds, and expressing what they want or their emotions.

Importance of developmental milestones:

Developmental milestones are a kind of checklist that helps you understand if your child is growing the right way or not. It helps you gauge the behavioural pattern, age-appropriate activities that the child can perform, etc.

However, there are always individual differences in every child. Some may cope with their developmental milestones with great ease others may not show any signs of development until much later. Thus, these milestones act as an excellent guide for parents, teachers, and doctors to comprehend the how the child is growing and gage the potential development of the child.

There are generally four types of developmental milestones, they are as follows:

1. Cognitive Milestone:

As the name suggests, this milestone is the ability of the child to think, learn, comprehend, and figure out a solution to a problem. This mental development is the most crucial among all the other developments of the child. Children, when in this development tend to learn how to respond and reciprocate to the facial gestures and expressions that come their way.

2. Physical Milestone:

The second most important of the developmental milestone is the physical milestone. This involves developing and honing both fine as well as large-motor skills. During this development, children tend to be more aware of the way they sit, their posture, etc. The more young ones will learn to hold a pen, crayon, pick up things, learn about shapes and sizes, etc.

3. Communication Milestones:

This milestone involves, by and large, both verbal and non-verbal communication. It also involves understanding the language better and learning how to use the language for different situations and circumstances.

4. Social and Emotional Milestones:

This milestone helps the children to be aware of their emotions and understand the emotions of others. Many times, a child’s intuitive sense is said to develop in this stage as well. The social and emotional milestones involve how the child interacts and plays with other children.

Diet - a support to the developmental milestones:

Diet is a significant aspect of growing the right way. A healthy nutrition helps to enhance the mood and mind thus, resulting in healthy choices in the latter part of the child’s life. A good meal will invariably impact positively not only on the physical development but also the cognitive development. Issues such a poor self-esteem, bone, and joint problems are invariably a result of poor diet.

Thus, the inclusion of vitamin and mineral rich foods is essential. Also, carbohydrates and fats should be consumed on a daily basis but, in adequate amounts. You may want to consult a pediatrician to know the how much should your child be consuming of what.

Ensure that foods such as eggs, yogurts and dairy products, greens, fishes of all kinds, nuts and seeds, and seasonal fruits are included in the child’s diet on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the food that we consume may not give as much nutrition as the body requires. Hence, it is important to complement the diet with nutritional powders such as Enfagrow A+ fills the pocket of nutrients, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, etc. that are required by the body.