CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT: ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITION IN CHILDREN

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT: ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITION IN CHILDREN

 Assessing Children and Adolescents

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 Assessing Children and Adolescents

Being underweight in children and adolescents is as problematic as being overweight or obese. As such, nurses and other healthcare workers have a responsibility to health promotion by teaching parents and children proactive strategies for addressing and preventing underweight. Thus, focusing on weight during the pediatric assessment is imperative to determine if the child is underweight, overweight, obesity, and evaluate the associated risk factors (Srinath et al., 2019). Being underweight in children is a major health problem because of the associated physiological and mental health impacts that persist to adulthood. The purpose of assessment is to identify the causes, precipitating factors, and risk factors of underweight and then develop a proactive plan to minimize the health effects. An important consideration when collecting information is to apply cultural sensitivity. The purpose of this assignment is to assess the case of an underweight seven-year-old girl for risk factors and elements related to weight outcomes.

The Issues and Risks Relevant to the Child

A child who is underweight is at risk of poor growth and development because her situation signals a case of poor nutrition. At 7 years, the child is still in an important developmental stage and proper nutrition is a crucial factor in healthy growth and development. Additionally, poor nutrition can lead to the inability to build strong immunity. Strong immunity is important to prevent the body from diseases or infections (Alshahrani et al., 2021). Poor nutrition can also lead to impaired cognitive development resulting in problems with concentration. With poor nutrition, the child is also at risk of developing cardiovascular problems and other lifestyle diseases. Moreover, being underweight could also be an indication that the child has an underlying mental health condition such as attention deficit hyperactive disorder or depression. Moreso, it could be because of abuse or other traumatic experiences causing mental health issues and hence; being underweight. For example, the parents are separated/divorced and have to alternate living with each parent. Furthermore, being underweight also points to the possibility that the child comes from a poor socio-economic background (Anderson et al., 2019).

Additional Information

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITION IN CHILDREN

First, I would seek information on the child’s diet and eating habits to understand whether she is getting proper nutritional nutrients or not. Further nutrition information would also be gathered using the body mass index measurements (BMI) for the child and the parents. Secondly, I would need additional information on the family health history especially hereditary conditions associated with the family. Such information could shed light on the hereditary conditions that the child might be at risk of especially the ones related to being underweight or overweight (Chai et al., 2019). I would also gather information on the family dynamics, for example, relationships, functioning, socioeconomic status, and the possibility of hostility or abuse that might affect the child behaviorally or mentally. Finally, I would collect information on the child’s growth and development since birth. While collecting the information from the parents, I would be conscious of the socioeconomic background and cultural issues.

Three Questions

1. What is your child’s typical diet? This question evaluates if the child’s diet is healthy or not to gauge the nutritional intake (Alshahrani et al., 2021).
2. Do you have any history of hereditary diseases related to weight such as obesity? This question will especially be directed to the mother who is overweight to determine if it is due to genes or eating and lifestyle habits.
3. How can you describe your child’s growth and development since she was born? The question evaluates if the child has had any developmental problems or mental, or behavioral issues.

Strategies

The first strategy is to provide nutritional and lifestyle education to promote healthy eating and lifestyle choices that lead to positive health outcomes. For example, the parents might be unaware of the importance of proper nutrition and the health consequences associated with poor knowledge. With such knowledge, parents can adopt ways of ensuring proper health management for themselves and their children (Alshahrani et al., 2021). For example, introducing homemade meals rather than takeouts is healthy and nutritious. Nutritional education will also help the parents understand meal combinations that contain the required nutrients for the healthy growth and development of a child. The second strategy is patient advocacy to enhance access to essential resources (Cheng et al., 2020). Nurses are patient advocates in that they identify issues affecting the patients and advocate for a solution. In this case, if the nurse establishes that the family is from poor socioeconomic background and cannot afford healthy meals. The nurse will provide avenues to access community resources and other support for access to nutritional foods.

Conclusion

Health assessment is integral in identifying the issues that impact health outcomes for children and adolescents. Being overweight and underweight are significant problems in healthcare because they have health consequences on children, whose impacts persist to adulthood. Therefore, it is essential to promote proactive strategies that help parents maintain good nutrition and proper weight for their children. In the case study, a 7-year-old girl who is underweight is exposed to the risk of weak immunity because of poor nutrition. Additionally, the child faces the risk of mental health and poor behavioral outcomes in addition to other physiological health outcomes. Understanding the eating habits, family health history, and family dynamics provides a better understanding of the patient’s needs.

References

Alshahrani, A., Shuweihdi, F., Swift, J., & Avery, A. (2021). Underestimation of overweight weight status in children and adolescents aged 0-19 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity and Scientific Practice, 7(6):760-796. https://doi.10.1002/osp4.531. PMID: 34877014; P.

Anderson, P. M., B. K., & Schanzenbach, D. W. (2019). Understanding recent trends in childhood obesity in the United States. Economics & Human Biology, 34, 16-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.02.002.

Chai, L. K., Collins, C., May, C., Brain, K., Wong See, D., & Burrows, T. (2019). Effectiveness of family-based weight management interventions for children with overweight and obesity: an umbrella review: An umbrella review. JBI Database of Systematic Re. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, 17(7), 1341–1427. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-003695.

Cheng, H., Eames-Brown, R., & Tutt, A. (2020). Promoting healthy weight for all young children: a mixed methods study of child and family health nurses’ perceptions of barriers and how to overcome them. BMC Nursing, 19, 84 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00477-z.

Srinath, S., Jacob, P., Sharma, E., & Gautam, A. (2019). Clinical Practice Guidelines for Assessment of Children and Adolescents. Indian J Psychiatry, 61(Suppl 2):158-175. doi: 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_580_18.

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