The Nourished Baby

Book excerpt: The current global picture of children's health is a frightening one. Across both developed and underdeveloped countries childhood obesity continues to soar, along with the beginning signs for type two diabetes and heart disease. It starts at the beginning. The first 1000 days of a baby's life, from conception to the age of two are critical. In particular, the importance of establishing healthy habits in first 12 months after they come into this world cannot be stressed enough. How our babies are nourished with food, sleep and movement during this time sets them up for life; it is far easier to create good patterns at the beginning than to try and change these later on. To me, true nourishment is the interplay of these cornerstones of food, sleep and movements along with a sense of purpose (which tends to come slightly later in life). Like a pendulum swing they all affect one another. While we discuss all of these key foundations of wellbeing, the food we feed our babies in this first year is the primary focus of this book.