Chinese parents are being urged to pay more attention to their
children's nutrition, after a study revealed that unscientific ways of feeding
babies and a lack of trace elements are the two biggest threats to youngsters'
health.
Experts drew these conclusions from a two-year study into the nutrition and
health situation of children under six in 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai
and Guangzhou.
Launched in 2003 by the China National Children's Centre, the survey includes
8,043 children, equally divided between the genders.
It shows 37 per cent of surveyed children have baby food earlier than the
recommended age of four to six months old, with another 35 per cent taking it
later, which in return brings about a nutritional abundance or deficiency as
these children grow up.
"Our children above four to six months old lag behind foreign children in
terms of their physical well-being, although they boast the same quality below
the age of four months," said Zhao Shunyi, head of the children's centre.
She called on Chinese parents to pay more attention to their children's
nutrition after they stop breast-feeding at six months old.
Trace elements
The survey also shows more than half of the children above six months old are
deficient in five trace elements which are crucial to their physical development
- magnesium, copper, calcium, iron and zinc.
"Lack of zinc will lead to low level of intelligence; while our children are
also risking serious anaemia because of iron deficiency," said Dou Xiaowei,
vice-director of the National Centre for Child Nutrition Quality Supervision and
Testing.
"Parents should notice that the metabolic rate of children is 15 per cent
higher than that of adults. They need a large quantity of different nutrients,"
said Zhao.
"They'd better choose such baby food with plentiful trace elements,
especially calcium, iron and zinc."
Children from families who spend less than 1,000 yuan a month on their
children's food are found to have more complete and sufficient trace elements
than those from families that spend more.
"It may be because those higher-income families choose more junk food and
fast food for their children," said Dou.
Zhao said the centre is urging the central government to enforce child food
production management and supervision via revising related laws.
"Child food producers should be advised to market products with rich trace
elements," said she.
Dou added there will be some major changes in this regard in the next two
years.
The centre plans to conduct a similar survey among rural children soon since
"a majority of the 367 million children in China live in rural areas," said
Dou.
