Babies, Parenting, Child Health, Infant Nutrition

Childhood Health and Development – Recording Familial Health History Helps Children

02.12.2007 | 8:08:36 pm | Posted by admin

By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist

How knowledgeable are you about your family’s health history? While sitting around the table during the holidays, gaining knowledge about the health of close relatives can be more beneficial than simply making conversation. The current US surgeon general declared Thanksgiving 2007 to be the fourth annual National Family History Day and encouraged everyone to utilize the holiday season as a time to identify and discuss health problems that may run in the family.

Surveys conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services revealed that 96% of Americans feel that knowing family health history is important, yet only 1/3 have actually gathered or recorded their family health data. A recorded family health history can illuminate the risk of inheriting certain diseases, individual health concerns and environmental factors.

Although we cannot change our genetics, knowing what we may be predisposed to can certainly change the future. Taking action now can help reduce disease risks in the future such as regular check-ups with your physician, making your physician aware of family history, and participating in preventative screenings. Since those with a family history of chronic disease have the most to gain from lifestyle changes, knowing your health history can encourage positive behavior changes. To make things easier, the Surgeon General has created an online tool called My Family Health Portrait where you can create your own family tree.

How does this help children? When it comes to children’s health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. By knowing your family’s health risks, you can help your child create healthy habits from an early age. With regards to food allergies, knowing what allergies you, your spouse and immediate family members have, you can avoid certain foods in your infant or toddler’s diet, which can help prevent future allergies. In the case of celiac disease, which is predominately genetic, you can avoid giving your infant or toddler gluten to prevent celiac symptoms. In addition, being aware of food allergies and other familial health risks may allow you to identify symptoms of allergies sooner by being able to identify what your infant or toddler is experiencing.

So, this holiday season, while gathered together with relatives, don’t forget to grab a pen and jot down a little family health history.

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The Baby Mum-Mum blog discusses everything to do with babies and parenting with a focus on child health and child development. Baby Mum-Mum is a healthy, easy to digest baby rice snack that is enjoyed by babies and mothers around the world for its portability, gluten free ingredients and great taste.

Announcement:

On February 22, the FDA issued letters relating to labelling to 22 food companies, including several baby food manufacturers. We were advised by the FDA that we are not permitted to print the statements "Low in Fat" or "No added fat or oils" on our Baby Mum-Mum packaging.

Although these statements are true and each serving of Baby Mum-Mum does not contain any fat, the FDA has brought to our attention that these claims are technically not allowed on our packaging solely because the product is intended for consumption by infants and children under 4 years of age.

In the future, these claims will be removed from our packaging.

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