 Good morning. Welcome back to the Y254 channel. You are watching right in the morning. My name is Joy Mochache. You can find me on select platforms, Joy underscore Mochache. Like I said, Mondays are my favorite days. Why? Because of this Mosaic Health segment where we actually let people know different things about our health and both psychological and body-wise as we're doing today. Ways in which to improve your life health-wise and also to assist our youngsters and their parents. So if you want to reach out to us, please feel free to do so. Hashtag help on Monday. Hashtag why in the morning at Joy underscore Mochache. And ask whatever you'd like to ask or comment, whatever you'd like to comment. And our social media handles are right down there at the bottom of the screen. Karibuni Sana today as we talk to a nutritionist and a psychologist. And what we're covering today is actually behavior in children and how it affects nutrition and how it affects behavior in children. And how it goes both ways actually. How nutrition can affect behavior in children and behavior in children is affected by nutrition. So let's check it out by welcoming our guests. Karibuni Sana, please introduce yourself. I'm Jaycee Mako John, Child Psychologist. Okay, Child Psychologist. All right. I'm Vivi Moiti, I'm a Nutritionist. Okay, so we have a Child Psychologist and a Nutritionist on hand. Okay, so let's just jump right in and start off by, I guess, hashing out the terms so that people understand what we're talking about exactly. What do we say when we say behavior in children and nutrition? What's the simple way of explaining that sentence? We'll start with you at the beginning. All right, then we'll go to him. Nutrition firstly, they have to come here to help our body function directly. Our body is an automated machine. It works on its own, but every machine has an engine which requires work. So our body always needs nutrients for it to be able to function. And so when you talk about behavior and nutrition, there is how the nutrition, the aspect of having nutrients in the body affects our body function and how our body grows, especially the cognitive development affects how we behave towards food, especially for young children. And for people who are watching who don't know what cognitive development, what do you mean by cognitive development? Cognitive development is the mental development. It's how the mind functions. It's how the system functions. You know, we are all controlled by the nervous system, the central nervous system. So how our brain, the signal sent to our brain is what makes us act in a certain way. So when we talk about cognitive development affecting nutrition, it's how thinking how the signals are sent to our brain affects the outlook on food and diet, which ultimately affects the lifestyle that we live in. Okay, thank you for that. And you said your nutritionist. And so what you're going to cover is the angle through how it affects, especially things like development and growth in the body, yes? Yes. And for cognitive development, that would be more of your area. Yeah. Okay. And so yours is body, yours is psychological. Yeah. How does food affect a child psychologically? In very simple terms, umbrella to begin with. Okay. First of all, I'll say psychology is the study of the mind. Yes. And the behavior, behavior of maybe children and maybe adults. But, majorly, I deal with children. So we'll see how a child behaves from the mental structure. How mental is growing through a process because majorly we look at from conception after adolescence. Yes. So you see these things start from when the child is conceived and in the process you see how the mind or the brain develops and how this brings about the behavior because we have children who may behave differently in connection to how they're brought up and the environment where they're brought up and the foods they eat. And majorly food affects the growth of the brain of a child so much. I see. Yeah. All right. And so there are studies into the effect that food has an altering mood and behavior effect on children. But then there's mixed feelings about this. Like I had said before, there was a question that was asked by one of our previous presenters who was saying that in our country right now, can we really connect food and behavior? And if there's a parent listening, is there a parent that can really think that is there a way that food is connected to my child's behavior or my child's development, what would you like to say to that as experts? Let's start with you, Emily. Okay. First of all. In the Kenyan context. In the Kenyan context, how food affects behavior. Yes. All right. So food, as you say, eats up well, right? And mostly, as you said, there is a physical development of a child. There is a cognitive development of a child and there is a social development of a child. A child behaves with their parents or a child behaves with their parents. When it comes to the physical development, food does affect that. Okay. Nutrition wise. Actually right now in Kenya statistics, about 26% of the children in Kenya have stunted growth. Have stunted growth. Yeah. Meaning they're not growing. Or... It means that physically their height recommends as compared to their age is really not right. Okay. I think Mimei Niko Hapo think are one of those ones. In terms of the nutrients that are... Okay. First of all, the bone growth goes up to 23 right now, before it was up to 18 years, but right now it's up to 23 years. You can grow until the age of 23. That's more, man. According to the current research, before we always thought it's up to 18 years, but right now it has been proven it's up to 23 years. And so, when you begin eating, determines your structure. It really depends. Because calcium is the one that is responsible for the skeleton, the main escalator, the movement of the body. Yeah. And calcium is also required for the brain development, as well as omega-3 also for the brain, iodine for the brain, zinc for the brain. Things like ion for the blood formation. So everything about your body is linked to nutrients. I see. So if you don't take adequate nutrients, or you take an excess of a certain nutrient, which is called overnutrition. Overnutrition. My nutrition is divided into overnutrition and undernutrition. Okay. So when you have undernutrition, there's a way a child just behaves. A child with undernutrition is easily irritable. You see, the children are really active children. That one who has low nutrients, as compared to what their body really means, they have a short concentration span. They don't like being active. They're just their lonely kind of children. So all that is what we call, that's how we link behavior to nutrition. I see. When the right nutrients are not really there, for a child to be able to perform optimally. I see. Thank you for that. There are some things you mentioned, the iodine, the zinc. And whilst I go to Mr. Jesse, I want you to maybe, we'll come back to you, and you can give us examples of foods where parents can, examples of foods where these chemicals can be found, the iodine, the zinc, and the sodium and all that. How about you? So we're saying that right here in Kenya, it's a divided thing. She's given us, when it comes to body development, how parents in Kenya are taking it, and she's given us statistics about it. What about psychologically? Do you think that our parents are ready to accept the fact that food affects children psychologically? And if not, do you think it's important that they do? I think it's a very important thing that they should consider. Because in growth and development of a child, more so in terms of food, you see children who are breastfed for six months, that is exclusive breastfeeding. Yes. They tend to have a better development of the brain and even their physical structure than kids who are not breastfed for six months. Why? Because it has been, it says such that has been done that breast milk provides all the nutrients that are needed. And even during breastfeeding, there is a connection between the child and the mother. That's when the child knows the mother. There's a connection. And that helps even in the brain development when the child is looking at the mother just through the eyes. Oh yeah, yeah. It helps in brain development. Really? And even when a mother is breastfeeding the child, there's a way they engage. Yes. Cuddling and helping. You know, cuddling alone is the way of helping the brain to develop. Of course. Because as a child psychologist, we usually tend to tell parents that when a child is from a new net stage, that's when the child is born, the first three weeks should always make sure that you cuddle the head. Oh, is that why I see some parents rubbing the children's heads? For ages. I'm like, hey, mommy, relax. You've been doing that for 30 minutes. It allows us the senses of the brain, so the brain can... Wow. So if this one is not done, the senses, because the brain has billions of neurons and at that early age, they grow very fast and they are very sensitive. So if they're not aroused to that sensitivity, they can't work well. I see. Now, after that, which meals are you going to introduce? The supplements after breastfeeding, they're very important. Because one, you must consider that this child was taking breast milk, which was in a finer content. But now you are introducing solid foods. These solid foods must have the same nutrients as the breast milk. Yes. Of which if you introduce other foods that have got maybe high sugar levels. Let me talk about sugar levels. Okay. Most parents like packing juice for their kids. Juice is very wrong. Ribena. Because if you look at them, they have like 78.9 kilojoules of sugar. Right. And during this age of children, they are so active. The activity is because of the development of motor neurons, the motor muscles, fine motor muscles and gross motor muscles. Yes. Which are the hands and the bones and everything. I see. So they need a lot of energy, but they don't need that extra energy which is included in the foods. Like the foods that we're talking about like the sodas and everything. So this one, after introducing a child to this, the child actually becomes aggressive. Aggressive. Aggressive. Wow. And they start throwing tantrums. Ha. Who would have thought? Very hyperactive. Interesting. Yeah. So these kids we see throwing tantrums in supermarkets. It's because of foods. Because of foods. Because the foods that they were introduced to after the six months, they were not the same, they did not carry the same nutrient content as the breast milk. So every time you introduce a child into new foods, you must be considerate. You know, sometimes parents just say, let them go. And I've seen this also affecting the learning process of children in schools. I've been with kids for 10 years. ECD. What? Yeah. And I've seen it really affecting. You've seen it really affect children. And most parents tell us, they give us the children to tame. We can tame them at school. Tame. Because my work is to feed the mind with information. What about food? You can't do that. I can't do that. That's not your part. That's our part. I'm not feeding them at school. So parents just push them and then they say, my child is behaving this way. We can't fix them. It is not one hand. It is both hands. So I have to do my part and she has, or he has to do. The parent has to do the part by making sure the kid is feeding right. So there is a connection to that. And I hope that the parents who are listening to what we're talking about right now because we had kind of downplayed the importance of behavior and development when it comes to food and psychological behavior. But it seems that there is a real link right there, a real link. And please, let's go back to you. And I'd like to say, since he has told us about breastfeeding, and by the way, I think it was last week, last week was breastfeeding week. I don't know if you're aware. And so on Health Monday, we were discussing about the breastfeeding. So I'm glad you brought that in. But now to go back to you. After the breastfeeding is done, now comes nutrition. Now comes feeding baby solid food for development, body wise. He has talked about psychologically, what are some of the foods we can give our children. At that time, they have finished breastfeeding. Now they're starting to grow, to make sure they grow properly in the way that we want them to. Because me, I'm a small girl. I can give you a story, a short one. I like giving my experiences. My mom always told me that I hated milk. I hated milk with a passion. I don't know why. I don't know why. And so she says, I was born, what they say, small-boned. You know how they say, I was born, I was born big-boned and small-boned, you know. And so my bones are not exactly as big as many other people's bones. Because I just hated milk all my life. And I don't know. Tell us about food though. To matcha na na breastfeeding, sasani food. Okay, first of all, there is the introduction of complementary feeding. That is from six months. Could you please cut that? Right. Because the breast milk can no longer satisfy the child and it can no longer reach the nutrient requirement of the child. So from six months is the introduction of complementary feeds. But at that stage you don't tell the mother to stop breastfeeding. They need to continue breastfeeding until at least the child is one year old. But we are on the go society. We are in the society where we are at work we are looking for money. So we have to accept that mostly it stops at six months. Okay. So from six months onwards, there are certain kinds of food that really needs to be introduced without what the breast milk was not really given in sufficiency. And one of it is vitamin A. That's why in the immunization when you take your child at six months, they are given vitamin A at six months. And at nine months they are also given vitamin A. Now this vitamin A is supposed to be supplemented until five years. But what most parents do after the jobs, after the nine month job then don't go back. And unless the child is really sick, that's when they take the child back to hospital. And when they take the child back to hospital, that's when they are given the vitamin A supplement. But the reason why vitamin A is really required is number one in the immune system. Remember, most of the parents say that my child is sick up to five years. You know, they are really delicate up to five years. Yeah, they keep saying that my child is sick up to five years. But that's because the immune system is really not that strong. Okay. Okay, for a child as he said who has gone through EBF, the immune is really good. So vitamin A to help boost the immunity, that is on top of macronutrients. Macronutrients are full of energy-rich food, protein-rich foods and some fats and oils. Okay. And so vitamin A comes from anything that is yellowish. Let me put it in Lehmann's language. Please do. So lately, there is this one called the orange-flashed sweet potato. Orange-flashed sweet potato. Yeah, it's something that Center for International Potatoes and Vitamin A and one of their ways they had to come up with such a thing so that the parents can easily assess that kind of vitamin A that is really available. First and foremost, I need you to know that vitamin A can really, it just escapes with heat. Let me put it in Lehmann's language. Yes. So vitamin A-rich foods don't need to really be exposed to a lot of heat. They just need a small amount of heat. So every time you're picking a pumpkin to a point where you know that you've lost almost all the vitamin A to be specific. Yes. And then the next one is called iron. Actually on children after six months to five years, there's something known as hidden malnutrition. The hidden malnutrition is that one of vitamin A, iron iodine, as well as vitamin D. So apart from vitamin A, then there's something else that is known as iron. Yes. Iron is good for the body. The entire body functions with blood. Blood takes nutrients. Blood brings out toxic things for you to go to the kidney and everything. So we basically function with blood. So when it comes to iron, iron actually comes from green rifi vegetables. Green rifi. Your managus and everything. Yeah, the managus, the greenish stuff. Okay. Now with this intake of iron, you have to know that iron can interact in the body without it enhances the absorption of what I take or inhibits what I take. So I end up excreting everything as I took it in. So when you're taking, you're giving your child these green rifi vegetables which are rich in iron, including the use of liver and some lean meat. Yeah. Those are what is that one enhances absorption of the iron. Okay. Vitamin C rich foods are mostly citrus fruits. Okay. So citrus fruits include lemon. Oranges. Oranges. It includes guavas. It includes or what are they called? These orange like. Grapefruit. Yeah. Grapefruit. It includes all that. But what most parents do when they're pregnant, after your child has taken the green rifi vegetables to give them milk next. You know, finish up their food and you take the milk. Okay. Milk has a calcium that binds the iron. So once you give your child the iron, then you give them the milk. They tell you eventually take everything to the toilet. And that's why you have even today. There's even an order in eating. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That is what is called nutrient-neutrant interaction. Wow. Yes. So you can give your body a nutrient, then you give your body an antinutrient based on the next food that you eat. Then you end up in the look. So after some time you see your child is really weird. Your child is standing pale. Your child is active in class and your teacher calls and tells you not to come and pick your child. And when you go to the hospital you're told your child really doesn't have enough blood. You're like, what happened? I'm always giving them the right kinds of food. But really when you give them the right kinds of food, what is their accompaniment to that kind of food? Thank you for that, Emily. There's a couple of clips and then you come back in with that. Then we'll continue with Emily. Maybe you can just tell us real quick when it comes to mental, things like ADHD, because there's a time we discuss ADHD here. And it's quite a common mental disorder I think. Actually I don't like that word. I don't like the word disorder. What's a polite way to classify mental illnesses? It's just a mental illness. Okay. In the smudges you may like to look for a polite word. But these things are there. It's the way it is. So I can say mental illness. Yeah, we just have to accept it. So when it comes to ADHD, the mental illness, a lot of our children, I think in schools, wow, no attention, no concentration, no nothing. And she's explained a few things. Even teachers calling and saying come and pick school, but she's talking about physical ailments. I'd like for you to quickly say do you think that it's important for schools to include school counselors in which they can also discuss with nutritionists so that we can see what kind of menus to give our children at school because there are these schools where they eat lunch in school or there are places actually where you have to carry your own food. What can a psychologist do when it comes to health behavior? Basically I think most schools should include nutritionists when they're making the timetable or anything concerning foods. Wow, that's because you find that like if you look at most schools maybe public schools or children are eating, they eat the same kind of food every day. Yes, that's true. So what is the effect here? You know sometimes we start blaming others. It is very easy to point a finger at somebody, yet the problem is from me. That's true. So when we include nutritionists in the system of our schools we'll achieve the best results because we look at schools maybe where I was working before I got out we had a nutritionist who was assisting us in making the timetable and even the menu for school. Yes. That is whatever the hand in hand with the activities. Because like when you have games on Fridays the food that they should eat is different from the foods they are going to take on Wednesday. How so? Because they need more energy on Friday when they are outside. Yes, for sports day and everything. So you can't eat, you can't give a child Ugarli on a Wednesday you expect this to be in class. Why are they sleeping in class? Because of the food. Yes. The system is overworked they need a lot of water they need a lot of stuff in the body so the body system shuts down because of the food that has been taken. So if we can if the schools can put this into consideration that they should have nutritionists who can just advise them because even I think even pines should also be told these things. Yeah, of course schools should also sometimes are ready to change considering because of their kids. Because the challenge is from when they come to preschool that is five years to seven years. It's a very crucial age for them. I want you to pause there because we're going to pick up there we need to go and check out a couple of clips that we have put down for you guys to understand exactly how nutrition and behaviors connected. Please anybody. The nonprofit group says it reviewed two dozen scientific studies. The group says most of the studies focused on artificial colors. The objective was to look for connection between the dye and worsening behavior in kids with ADHD. But even if your kids don't have ADHD there's a lot to think about when you're out buying food. Angela Ardalino the publisher is talking about shopping around and we were talking during the break about sugar and some of the things that we should watch out for. But there's a lot if they have too much sugar or high fructose corn syrup they actually get super hyper and their blood sugar rises and then crashes which then usually means they're going to be irritable tired and it's as they continue to fix that yeah, do you mind picking up where you're talking. Yeah when you look at the aspect of sugars and the the effect on the brain development and health wise I was saying that don't give the children sugars in the state of how they are because mostly you realize that parents give their kids sugars in form of glucose which is a very good form it is easily digested but in soluble sugars is very dangerous most so when ok, some kids pick their behaviors from genetic order like they pick them from their parents some parents are aggressive some are talkative some are quiet but now if you it is also given foods that are having too much sugar too many sodas and juices yeah so you're raising the bar from 20% to 60% this child is uncontrolled in class they're always up and down they're jumpy and you know even if you can just do a research if you give a child even a child who is maybe one year all or one and a half try to give that child food having sugars then absorb the behaviors to be something else we have one in the house if you give him foods in sugar he will go around walking, talking, jumping and shouting but when you give the foods like the ones like sweet potatoes right natural foods I will provide kids to be given natural foods rather than the red demand ones for market and buy because they don't have time I agree and I want both of you to discuss on this particular one because I have an interesting when you were saying that something popped into my mind I've never seen a kid who's going to be happy to eat a sweet potato you know so I'm asking myself how how do you tell this child this kid is throwing a tantrum they want a sweet maybe you've not bought them sweets in like a month because you know you're trying to be a good parent or whatever and they're just really not understanding why you'd rather this child eat something else something healthy a vegetable or something maybe you can tell us how do you feel about that and what can we do as parents in order to help our children accept this alternative foods because I think it's going to be hard especially Storia chips fried chips all the time there's so many junk food people are going crazy for junk food I mean what are you going to do this is the same question parents come in in clinics like oh my God my child doesn't want porridge I can't force my child and then you know in this generation I'm not going to force my child to take what they want as it was utakunya yoji single maliza yoji you know well it's not good for such a child any type of food but generally however a food is introduced to you either end up loving the food or hating the food how it's introduced to you how it's introduced to you even for an adult if fish is introduced to you when it's mainly looking bad you may never take fish again but if it's presented in a really beautiful way you will love fish for the rest of your life so first of all parents and I hear people say healthy foods are not really that they are ish ish they are not really that beautiful they are palatable but the thing is how do you prepare the food for your child that's true when you're presenting the food to the child how do you present it do you present like everything masakura way that's true or do you put it in a really wise beautiful way and then the kind of plates you also give the child you just give a child a certain duck weird looking plate or is there a plate that even the child you know a plate can even make can motivate the child eat food that's true I've heard the kind of plates that you use either make someone eat less or eat more or eat more just yeah it's amazing and even as parents what kind of environment do you create for that child as they are eating are you shouting kablani maliza apu kosha maliza apu you know are you really encouraging them and telling them you know what you're eating vegetable because it's really good for you you grow strong you'll be beautiful you'll be like so and so because children have that so but you're saying the truth because for me personally and I'll tell you straight I don't like bad food I don't like bad food if food does not taste good I'm not going to eat it even if it's vegetarian so I understand what you're saying and there are many people who are like me and when you're putting food to children it can be very off-putting and it's important I think even for mothers look up recipes look up new ways to do things we're not saying look up recipes among you the people on YouTube who are putting dishes on your own food they're putting a nice first spin to things and they're tasting wonderfully and they're becoming really appealing and as we're closing maybe you can give us the psychological aspect of what she has said you know when you look at a child mostly before a child when the children are learning to eat they'll pick something they give you to eat if you take it they'll have that confidence to eat so are you accompanying them in eating because most parents they just give food and they expect the children to start eating but you know when you introduce them gradually you should also make them create an ambience of good eating a mother should be singing you can enjoy the meal as though you are the one who is eating the TV by the way yeah and you know when you are engaging the child the child is eating a lot of stuff it encourages the child it's not a matter of finishing the food it's a matter of how do we take the food and singing singing it has been proven mothers who sing to their kids the kids are healthy but some just say it's not a must the color of the plate really attracts the kids kids are so attracted to colors so how you present the food it's not a matter of you know we should not look at it that I have to force them no how you introduce this food children at one year old their test buds are now still developing so it's how you are going to introduce the food and what you are going to put into the food that will make the test buds improve so it's not a matter of like just pushing them no but please as mothers let us create that ambience as teachers we sing for them what about mothers in class there's nothing you can teach in preschool without a song that's true everything even if they are saying their names you have to sing for them to say their names so what about food this was a learning because you are a product of the knowledge you have and the environment where you brought it yeah that's true that's all about it well understood is there anything else you'd like to add well for me a lecture the kids pick up habits presented to them with their parents so your child is a result of what you give them and what you yourself feed so you are really feeding incorrectly don't expect your child to feed well unless they reach a point in life while they are they make a decision like oh my god I need to be healthy but they start picking up these habits from you from the dining table at home so which means don't eat junk foods and give your children other foods they'll cook what you do they pick that they'll pick that so if you want them to eat these other foods you also eat that natural food in front of them yeah okay thank you so much we have had a psychologist Mr. James and a nutritionist Ms. Emily come here on set and talk to us about nutrition and I hope you guys have learned something as parents how you can feed your children the order in which to feed them change your plates at home learn some things online and Google in how you can best give your children the nutrition that they need and force that milk down their throat so that was good come on Mimi I do love you guys so much and that's what we do on this show it's just to give you guys awareness about different health issues both mentally and body wise thank you so much for tuning in catch us on Monday same time my name is Jeremy and you can find me on select platforms enjoy underscore mochache