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I’m writing my bachelorthesis about children’s nutrition. Now I stumbled upon a question that I can’t answer myself and I wasn’t able to find it anywhere either.

Do nutrients (carbs, fat, protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals) have the same functions in the body of an 6-10 year old child and an adult?

And are the deficiency symptoms also the same?

I can’t find any good sources that are about that age. Most of the books I found don’t even mention any age.

Thank you!

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    In general, nutrients have the same functions in the adults and children. Deficiency symptoms are roughly the same but can be more prominent and can occur quicker in children. Some specific (genetic) problems with nutrients are obvious from the birth and some appear later in life (for example, celiac disease or lactose intolerance). In which field is your thesis (medicine, nutrition...)? Do you want to write it from any specific aspect or just to show differences between children and adults? I could provide some sources to start with, but what specifically do you need? – Jan Nov 5 '19 at 7:59
  • Questions about nutrition are off topic here unless they're directly related to medical care. Since you raise the issue of deficiencies and symptoms you come close, but it still remains essentially just a nutrition question. There needs to be a focus on medicine, not nutrition. – Carey Gregory♦ Nov 5 '19 at 15:27
  • Thank you Jan for your answer! I’m only writing about children but I couldn’t find a lot of sources on children that’s why I thought that I could maybe just go with the general functions and deficiency symptoms! If you would have any sources on the functions or deficiency symptoms, that would be amazing. Or something that says that it’s the same in children and adults. Thank you so much!!!! – Laura123 Nov 5 '19 at 18:00
  • I’m sorry Gregory. I couldn’t find a nutrition stack exchange and thought that this one is the closest. – Laura123 Nov 5 '19 at 18:02
  • @Laura123 It's true that there is no site on SE that welcomes nutrition questions except under very narrow circumstances. Personally, I'm surprised such a site doesn't exist but to my knowledge one has never even been proposed. Anyway, since you sort of have an answer from Jan, I'm going to close this question now. – Carey Gregory♦ Nov 5 '19 at 19:00