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Undernutrition and Hearing Impairment

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Nutrition in Infancy

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

From birth, humans develop and acquire functional skills in key interdependent domains of motor (gross and fine); language (receptive and expressive); cognitive; and psychosocial development from early childhood as a basis for later educational and vocational attainment. While the most essential development generally begins from conception through the first 5 years of life, the first year of life is the fastest period of postnatal growth as well as the period most sensitive to stimulation and nurturing (or the lack of it) for the developing brain [1–4]. The human brain begins to develop in utero with the formation of neural cells followed by a sequence of cell migration and differentiation. As from the fourth month of life peripheral nerve fibers gradually acquire membranous sheath known as myelin to facilitate conduction from the nerve to the target organ and vice versa. Until about school age the brain develops rapidly through the processes of neurogenesis, axonal and dendritic proliferation, synaptogenesis, cell apoptosis, synaptic pruning, myelination, and gliogenesis and attains its maximum growth within the first 2 years of life as shown in Fig. 15.1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health and Primary Care, Maternal and Child Health Unit, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

    Bolajoko O. Olusanya

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  1. Bolajoko O. Olusanya
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Correspondence to Bolajoko O. Olusanya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Arizona Health Science Center, Mel and Enid Zuckerman, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin, Tucson, 85724-5155, Arizona, USA

    Ronald Ross Watson

  2. Centre for Gastroenterology, and Nutrition, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

    George Grimble

  3. School of Medicine, Diabetes & Nutritional, King's College London, 150 Stamford St., London, SE1 9NH, United Kingdom

    Victor R. Preedy

  4. Division of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel and Enid Zuckerman, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, Tucson, 85724, Arizona, USA

    Sherma Zibadi

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Olusanya, B.O. (2013). Undernutrition and Hearing Impairment. In: Watson, R., Grimble, G., Preedy, V., Zibadi, S. (eds) Nutrition in Infancy. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-254-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-254-4_15

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