Holistic Care for Proper Child Development

All parents want only the best for their children. What becomes 
of the child in the future is greatly dependent on the amount of love,
attention and nutrition he gets in his formative years. As such, even 
from the time of conception, total holistic care should be given to 
help the child achieve his optimal potentials.

By holistic is meant providing the foundation for the 
development of the set of skills necessary for a child to achieve certain 
developmental domains or milestones in accordance to his age. 

Among these skills are: gross motor, fine motor, receptive language, expressive language, personal-social and cognitive/adaptive skills. A child's proper 
development is measured against certain milestones from ages 3 to 48 months.

For gross motor skills, this would include activities such as controlling his 
head, gradually sitting alone without support, walking alone, climbing up and
down stairs, riding a trike and hopping on one foot. Fine motor skills
refer to a child's hand-eye and small muscles coordination, such as
grasping, writing and copying certain shapes. It also includes upper
extremity-related activities and manipulative hand abilities for such 
tasks as eating, dressing and playing.

The sequence of a child's language development is from simple 
to complex. It also begins from infancy, when a baby first recognizes his
mother and turns to the direction of her voice. As the baby grows, he
begins to play gesture games, and is able to follow one-step or 
two-step commands. This progresses to his ability to compose simple or complex
sentences and define words by use or shape. The psychosocial 
development includes two aspects: the personal which refers to the performance of
activities of daily living, and social which deals with interacting,
forming and maintaining relationships.

The last skill set is cognitive development which has to do with 
a child's learning, understanding, problem-solving capabilities, verbal 
and non-verbal reasoning and meeting daily living demands. The levels of
cognition for infants, pre-school and school-aged children are measured
differently. For infants, motor skills and language milestones are
observed. For pre-school children, it is their ability to reason.

Finally, school-aged children are subjected to various neuropsychological
assessments.

These developmental aspects are exactly what Frisogrow 4 aim to
support. Frisogrow 4, the growing up milk product of GlaxoSmithKline, 
has a holistic care system which aids in brain development and physical 
growth, strengthens body resistance and assists in proper digestion of a child 
four years and above. Frisogrow 4 is the right milk for this age group 
because this is the active exploring stage where he learns to interact with his
environment.

Frisogrow 4 contains SMART, GROWTH, DEFENSE AND DIGESTION factors 
to ensure a child gets the proper nutrition he needs. The Friso SMART 
factor includes taurine, choline and alpha linolenicacid (ALA) which supports
brain development. The Friso GROWTH factor is the calories, protein,
calcium, magnesium phosphorus and Vitamin D content. Friso’s DEFENSE 
factor strengthens body resistance and consists of beta carotene, Vitamins A, 
C and E and zinc. Friso DIGESTION factor predominantly contains lactose 
which acts as prebiotic and skimmed milk which acts as a fat source.

Dr. Corazon Barba, director of the Food and Nutrition Research

Institute (FNRI), said the role of nutrition, especially for a child, 
is to supply each cell of the body the substances it needs for growth,
maintenance and metabolic activities. If the nutritional requirements 
are met, this determines the level of somatic growth and the ability of the
cells to do their metabolic functions. This also reflects the maximum
growth potential of children.

It is important for parents to know the indications of good 
nutrition so they are assured that their children are in the pink of health.

Among these indications are: good attention span, interest in activities 
usual for his age, regular body mass, good communication skills, being 
sociable, outgoing and loving.

Source: GLAXOSMITHKLINE News Feature

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