Show Good Eating Habits Produce Better Babies Not only are we what we eat but our children also in large measure reflect our nutritional status THIS TillS IS THE striking message message message mes mes- sage that Dr Edwin M. M Gold brought to experts attending the recent American Dietetic Association meeting here Because he believes that the ultimate product of gestation can only be as asgood asgood asgood good as the quality of the ingredients which produce it Dr Gold urged that nutritional guidance and therapy be considered part of total maternity care liE HE NOTED that reproductive reproductive reproductive efficiency depends on the total h experience I of a woman The physician who is professor of maternal and child health at the University University University Uni Uni- of California Medical Center urged that nutritional care and education begin at I birth be carried through infancy infancy infancy in- in fancy childhood adolescence I young adulthood and right up I to conception During the prenatal period p specific nutritional guidance I relating to the requirements of pregnancy should be instituted instituted instituted in in- I and maintained I Nutritionally Risk At-Risk I AMONG THE most at risk groups in ill the world so far faras faras faras as nutrition is concerned are adolescent girls according to Dr Gold It is among these vc y 7 girls that the stresses ol of p p pie I cy are added to the nutritional nutritional I t onal needs for the girls' girls own growth These needs he observed are often superimposed superimposed superimposed super super- imposed on a previously poor nutritional status EXPERTS ESTIMATE that one out of every four mothers mothers mothers moth moth- ers bearing a first child in inthe inthe inthe I the United States is less than 20 years old Recent studies show that certain serious complications of pregnancy develop three and four times as often among teen aged mothers as amen among older women THERE IS also a higher incidence of infant mortality and premature births birth among teenagers While these problems are not due solely to a lifetime of poor nutrition Dr Gold maintains that it certainly plays a central role BOTH THE underweight patient and her obese sister Dr Gold observed represent nutritional problems and are especially vulnerable to r pregnancy complications One of every four J 1 patients patients in one Sf at risk Sk y hospital wed underweight one of were ere seven w were obese eve eVeri ry 4 BECAUSE liE HE is jy about so co the nt nutritional tonal deprivation so many suffer Dr Gold n nan pione ij pioneered an extended maternal car e program at New York SS ical College The caS care of f the theR thel new mother from mother one visit w was vas as extends extended t. t r after giving b six Wee weeks weeks- ks i birth firth to vis at three months four i a half six n nine and 12 I months At ea each visit 1 th the 1 nutritionist i as well t as th the e obstetrician saw the mother continuing her J nUtritional ed cd q 1 I |