Nutritional Needs for Intellectually Disabled Children Essay (Article)

Introduction

Intellectual disability is featured by an importantly low score on an examination of the mental capability or intelligence indicated by weaknesses in the capability of one to carry out the daily activities in his or her life like school activities, eating, communication, socialization and taking care of oneself among others (2 ). Intellectual disability is also termed as intellectual retardation or cognitive disability. Children suffering from intellectual retardation can and do study new proficiency, though they grow and develop very gradually when compared to other children who are normal or have reasonable brain and adaptive abilities. There are various levels of intellectual retardation that range from mild to severe cases. Intellectual retardation can set on at any time prior to an individual getting to 18 years (1 ). Some of the main causes of intellectual disability include; brain abnormality, damage and illnesses and all these causes can occur prior to child birth or as the child grows. For several children the major cause of the intellectual retardation is not well understood. However, some of the major causes of the disorder include; fragile X syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome and Down syndrome and all these happen prior to child delivery or birth. Others causes are severe head damage, stroke and particular diseases like meningitis. In this case, this paper will discuss the nutritional needs for the intellectual disabled children from both Western Medicine and Chinese herbal aspects (7 ).

Common nutritional problems among intellectual disabled children

Children suffering from intellectual disabilities face a different degree of health when compared to their counterparts’ peers. This health variation might be grouped into two categories; health unfairness and health discrepancy (3 ) . Health unfairness refers to the variations made possible or caused by available or social matters, while health discrepancy refers to the variations because of the underlying medical pathologies (4 ). Some of these common nutritional problems among the intellectual disabled children include obesity, cardiovascular wellbeing of these children are lower, mental disorders, lack of adequate preventative screening, physical health problems, inadequate medical care services usage and sensory disability (5 ).

Nutritional needs

Like any other person, individuals suffering from intellectual disabilities are born, develop, mature, grow old and require excellent health and medical care services within their dwelling or society. However, people with intellectual disabilities, their people and supporters have expressed concern regarding challenges or predicaments they experience in living healthy and obtaining suitable medical services whey fall sick. They feel exempted from the public crusades or movements that are intended to boost people’s wellness (8). This is because there is shortage of health care providers who are well proficient and well able or willing to recognize them as sick people and have the knowledge and skills to achieve or fulfill their professional requirements.

Dietary requirements for intellectual disabled children

Similarly, other common nutritional problems include dental and visual care requirements. These are common among the intellectual disabled children because they are not examined hence, they grow without being detected and treated on time. In addition, intellectual disabled children or people are particularly underprivileged since dental, visual or clinical medications might be stopped because of their behavioral characters. Regardless of the heightened mental and physical health predicaments faced by intellectual disabled children, they also get inadequate medical care. This is because the medical personnel think that the intellectual disabled children who dwell in the societies need specialist medical care services (6). Therefore, this leads to such children getting themselves between two medical care settings and getting neither of the services. Moreover, some health care providers who are not experienced in rendering services to such children express their degree of discomfort in offering health care to them.

There are several nutritional needs that are required by intellectual disabled children. For instance, currently, bone health has been indentified to play a role to the entire lifetime of children management especially those suffering from intellectual disabilities. Therefore, it is important for one to understand the composition of bones and the requirements in the growth of the bones especially during childhood and adolescent stage. Strategies to solve the problem of bone health include; consumption of food containing effective vitamin D and calcium (8 ). Vitamin D is required probably because the parents of the child did not help the child get enough sunshine to boost the health of his or her bones, poor dietary ingestion and the harmful impact of anticonvulsant treatment. Moreover, these children are in need of vitamin C, that is, fruits intake in their diet is very low according to a research that was carried out. Children suffering from severe intellectual disability also suffer from underweight because of vomiting that is self-induced and refusal of food. On the other hand, children suffering from mild intellectual disabilities are likely to be overweight which expose them to great risk of contracting diet-associated chronic illnesses (6).

For individuals who require nutritional needs such as vitamin D should be exposed to sunshine regularly. Alternatively, in areas where sunshine is limited, nutritional complement of vitamin D could be implemented. In addition, intellectual disabled children should be offered health care services like people who are in need of information about vegetables and fruits. They should be encouraged to be including vegetables and fruits in their diets in order to improve their quality of life. In addition, since different children suffer from various disorders, the parents should consult the nutritionist in order to know the best dietary requirement for the condition of their children (10).

Western and Chinese herbal medicines for intellectual disabled children

The Chinese herbal medication for intellectual disabled children looks at the condition with a holistic approach that looks at both the treatment of the illness and the ability to reinforce the resistance of the body and mental stability of the sick child in order to ensure overall health. On the other hand, western herbal medication is focused on the curing rather than health. Chinese medicines promotes the entire wellbeing of a person and are given in form of powder that is mixed with a drink or applesauce and taken two times a day or any other method that the doctor might direct the person. The advantages that is related with these Chinese herbal medicines is that they are odorless, long-lasting and have little flavor. In addition, they are designed or made in way they can achieve the health requirements of the child (9). Hence, Chinese medicines are extracted from plants as opposed to the western medicines.

These Chinese medicines for intellectual disabled children are formed from dried extractions. These are obtained from natural botanical substances like leaves, roots and stems among others. The drugs are formed and packaged in current, sterilized laboratories. During the formation of the drug, the substance is boiled up to the time a sap like material is formed. This material is later dried and grounded up to form the powders (9). Thus, these medicines are more potent that the original substance they came from.

Conclusion

In conclusion, intellectual disability is characterized by several importantly physical and cognitive limitations. These limitations are as a result of several causes and some of these causes include dietary insufficiencies, hence, to remedy or improve these conditions in children, there are various dietary requirements that are needed.

Reference list

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