Pediatric nutrition plays a crucial role from birth to adolescence, evolving into a specialized science as awareness and healthcare advancements grow. Today, nutritionists offer customized diets for conditions like seizures, ADHD, autism, and childhood obesity. Challenges include limited research, few trained professionals, and social media-driven misinformation. Awareness campaigns and parental education are vital. Breastfeeding, initiated within the first hour of birth, fosters emotional bonding and releases calming hormones like oxytocin. Early breastmilk provides essential immunity, gut health, and protects both mother and baby from long-term health risks.

Shahid Akhter, Editor, Healthyouonline, spoke to Ms. Pooja Marathe — Maternal and Pediatric Nutritionist and Lactation Consultant, KIMS Cuddles, Secunderabad — to understand how early nutrition shapes a child’s growth, why breastfeeding is both emotional and biological, and what challenges nutritionists face in the age of social media, limited research, and rising childhood disorders. The conversation also highlights the role of awareness, personalized diets, and evidence-based care in building healthier future generations.

Pediatric Nutrition: Trends

What does Pediatric Nutrition mean? Right from childbirth till the age of 18, nutrition plays a very important role, which forms the basic, biological combination of how the child is growing. The trend has set in where the dietitian or the nutritionist plays an important role in the ICU.

Working in the early childhood development in the school, giving children and also the adolescents. Many children face many health issues.

Well, 20 years back, pediatric nutrition was not known as a specialty even when you chose MSC in Nutrition and Clinical dietetics. But as mother and tertiary child care began in the sector, and as advances started happening in hospitals where tertiary care centers, especially for mother and child care, started booming up, pediatric nutrition was known as a special science and a special branch for nutrition.

When we talk about pediatric nutrition, people are getting aware to reach out to a child nutritionist for a specific nutrition related issue to their child. For example, if a child is having seizures and the dietitian is, you know, trained in ketogenic diet, they will be approaching the nutritionist. Or if a child is having a specific condition of ADHD or autism, the child nutritionist will be reached out or the child has cancer, the child nutrition, it would be reached out.

So now these are the advancements that we see. This becomes very specific, very individualistic and very customized. And this is where the nutritionist does her research makes it work for the child and upholds her health. Or, you know, head much better when she gets a good feedback that the child is doing better. I give you a simple example.

Childhood obesity is a very common problem. The child has become a picky eater and post-Covid we have seen this trend. But if you reach out to a nutritionist, she would plan out the diet. She would help to customize on to the calories. She would give the correct food choices. If it's followed up very properly, you will see the child doing much better. And with these things, the trend, what you see, people are becoming more aware and the kids would be more healthier and the generation would be much better.

Pediatric Nutrition: Challenges

There are challenges where the nutritionist is not able to understand the child in a complete manner. Secondly, the research which has been published is very, very limited. Third is there are very few dietitians who are working in this field.

So research plays a very important role. And making it aware to the public. As a health nutritionist, having campaigns, making people aware about what is the correct thing and not following the trend blindly is the most important challenge. Because in the era of social media, people are highly influenced by what is going on digitally. But when you look into the specific aspects of what a child is following, the parents need education And I feel awareness is the key over here.

Breast feeding: More than nutrition, its emotional bonding

Initiation of mother's milk starts right after the birth of the child.  Whether it's a normal vaginal delivery or via a C-section in a known case, we start with the golden hour management, which is known as the first feed given to the child, as soon as the child is born.

Right. If it's a C-section, the child is being directly breastfed. Then skin to skin contact in the O.T. till the mother is being stitched up. If it's a normal vaginal delivery, the child has been put skin to skin and the lactation consultant or the professional is helping the mother to latch the baby. This is a very important because the stress hormones which are developed during the mother's body, are calmed down by the latching process, and oxytocin, which is a calmness hormone, is released inside the mother's body.

So this kind of bonding is not only emotional, but lets the baby know that the mother is there for the baby. The baby will take a few drops of colostrum. Latching the baby more effectively and efficiently every 2 to 2 hours is the practice that is being preached out for generations. o early initiation helps in better latching, better improvement, and better outcomes of exclusive breastfeeding.

Early Breastmilk: Nature’s first immunity shield

So when we have early initiation of breast milk, it benefits the  motheras well as  the baby. The baby builds immunity. The baby is having a lot of proteins. You know, the gut probiotics is present so that the stomach of the baby is taking the good bacteria from the mother. It is, helping her to stay away from cancer.

The mother's postpartum bleeding also come down. It is going to help her  stay away from various metabolic diseases like cancer, thyroid and, gestational diabetes Her mental state of mind is going to be more active.