A baby’s growing brain needs the right fuel, known as macronutrients — protein, fats and carbohydrates. Children who do not get enough macronutrients before their second birthday often suffer from lower IQ scores, poor academic performance and behavioral challenges.
Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days has devastating lifelong effects. Without the right blend of macronutrients, it becomes more difficult to one day rise out of poverty. It causes irreversible damage to the brain, ultimately affecting a child’s ability to do well in school and eventually earn a good living.
Children who are undernourished during the critical thousand-day window are more likely to be short and thin in adulthood and less healthy and productive than they might have been otherwise. When malnourished girls grow up, they are more likely to have low-birthweight babies, perpetuating the cycle of malnutrition and poverty.
Without early interventions, the world’s most vulnerable babies in Guatemala, Haiti, Mozambique and other developing countries face tremendous hurdles to escape poverty — a tragedy Cross Catholic Outreach is working hard to overcome.