Updates on Child Nutrition and Health Seminar (Part 2)

Remember how Mommy mentioned about registering to attend a seminar on updates on child health and nutrition in UPM? Well, Mommy attended this seminar on 10th November 2009 and would like to share some interesting information with fellow parent bloggers. But first, before Mommy goes into the hard facts of the seminar, let's see some photos taken that day:

(The Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, where the seminar was held.)

(A bunting of the seminar. See the tables and chairs with skirting in the background? That's for the tea breaks and lunch provided for free during the seminar!)


(The official opening ceremony of the seminar.)




(Associate Professor Dr. Pantipa Chatchatee from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, conducting her opening address on "Child Nutrition and Immunity".)




(Here are the 'goodies' in the seminar bag given out to participants: EnfaMama, EnfaGrow and EnfaKid free sample sachets, a Mead Johnson ballpen and seminar tag.)




(The seminar materials that were also included in the seminar bag: clockwise from top left - Sustagen cardboard folder, fullscap paper for jotting down notes, leaflets on EnfaGrow and Sustagen, and the seminar programme and abstract book.)




(And finally after finishing the seminar, Mommy received a certificate of participation!)

OK, here are the things Mommy wants to share with fellow parent bloggers/readers and of course, Mommy tries to minimize the usage of scientific terms for the benefit of the general audience:

1. 1st speaker - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pantipa Chatchatee (Head Division of Allergy & Immunology, Dept. of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) on "Child Nutrition and Immunity". Dr. Pantipa shared about how nutrition can affect child's immune system in many ways and that the interrelationship between nutrition, immune functions and inflammation can be targeted for health promotion and disease prevention. Some interesting points mentioned during her talk:

• Imbalance in fatty acids may drive certain immune cells towards the inflammatory direction, so you will see more allergic reactions.
• When mom consumes fish oil regularly during pregnancy, the baby will have less allergy problems because more DHA equals to less inflammation, BUT excessive DHA can disturb the blood clotting process, more so during childbirth.
• The function of immunity is not only to fight against foreign matters, but also to tolerate foreign matters found in food, self, environmental components and other bacteria living together in our body. It is the imbalance between fighting and tolerating that causes allergic and inflammatory problems. The T-regulatory cells are the ones in charge of controlling this balance. The development of tolerance actually starts prenatally.
• You are what you eat! Immunity starts from the gut! Dr. Pantipa cited one experiment done on newborn mouse. The newborn mouse was subjected to sterile environment since birth, that is, sterile food, sterile water, sterile living condition and the likes. Of course, the baby mouse grew up and then scientist started exposing it to normal living conditions and the mouse got sick easily. So the lesson learnt is that you need some 'dirty' living conditions and exposure to germs so that your immune system gets the necessary 'practice' or stimulation to fend off infections.
• Dr. Pantipa also mentioned about the increasing prevalence of allergy in nowadays society. The issues that she highlighted were: (1) Is our environment becoming more toxic? (2) Or is the population becoming more and more susceptible?

Mommy will have to stop here now because Mommy will need to go fetch Juan Or back from the babysitter's house. So stay tuned for more posts after this where Mommy will share the main points picked out from subsequent speakers (there were 10 speakers in all).