Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India

Every year 27 million babies are born in India. At any time, there is a cohort of over 50 million children under two years old. Good nutrition during the first two years helps to build bodies, brains and immunity for every child; yet, survey after survey tells us there is a real crisis in how babies...

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Autores principales: Menon, Purnima, Khan, Shariqua Yunus, Sankar, Rajan
Formato: Magazine Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Emergency Nutrition Network 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143922
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author Menon, Purnima
Khan, Shariqua Yunus
Sankar, Rajan
author_browse Khan, Shariqua Yunus
Menon, Purnima
Sankar, Rajan
author_facet Menon, Purnima
Khan, Shariqua Yunus
Sankar, Rajan
author_sort Menon, Purnima
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Every year 27 million babies are born in India. At any time, there is a cohort of over 50 million children under two years old. Good nutrition during the first two years helps to build bodies, brains and immunity for every child; yet, survey after survey tells us there is a real crisis in how babies across India are fed, especially around complementary feeding. Indeed, barely a tenth of Indian babies received a minimally adequate diet, even in 2018. Feeding babies well is no small task. Multiple times a day, every day, parents and caregivers must prepare, feed and clean their infants – adding up to an estimated 5,000 feeding moments in the first two years of life. Parents and caregivers need information, time, resources, skills and support to undertake what is a massive caregiving task over these first two years of a child’s life. Public programmes implemented by frontline health workers and medical professionals typically offer parents advice and information, with research finding varying degrees of impact. Indeed, programmes to provide breastfeeding and complementary feeding information and support to families are a common feature of public policy across South Asia. However, few countries in the region also offer families with young children specially formulated complementary food supplements – fortified cereals, cereal-pulse mixes, eggs – to support infant feeding. Evidence suggests that, in food-insecure populations, either food or cash should be provided to families to support infant feeding1. India and Sri Lanka are two of the countries in South Asia that include public provisioning of complementary foods in their nutrition programmes at national scale.
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spelling CGSpace1439222025-02-24T06:49:04Z Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India Menon, Purnima Khan, Shariqua Yunus Sankar, Rajan food supplements infants child nutrition programmes complementary foods nutrition child feeding children diet breastfeeding Every year 27 million babies are born in India. At any time, there is a cohort of over 50 million children under two years old. Good nutrition during the first two years helps to build bodies, brains and immunity for every child; yet, survey after survey tells us there is a real crisis in how babies across India are fed, especially around complementary feeding. Indeed, barely a tenth of Indian babies received a minimally adequate diet, even in 2018. Feeding babies well is no small task. Multiple times a day, every day, parents and caregivers must prepare, feed and clean their infants – adding up to an estimated 5,000 feeding moments in the first two years of life. Parents and caregivers need information, time, resources, skills and support to undertake what is a massive caregiving task over these first two years of a child’s life. Public programmes implemented by frontline health workers and medical professionals typically offer parents advice and information, with research finding varying degrees of impact. Indeed, programmes to provide breastfeeding and complementary feeding information and support to families are a common feature of public policy across South Asia. However, few countries in the region also offer families with young children specially formulated complementary food supplements – fortified cereals, cereal-pulse mixes, eggs – to support infant feeding. Evidence suggests that, in food-insecure populations, either food or cash should be provided to families to support infant feeding1. India and Sri Lanka are two of the countries in South Asia that include public provisioning of complementary foods in their nutrition programmes at national scale. 2020-08-01 2024-05-22T12:18:06Z 2024-05-22T12:18:06Z Magazine Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143922 en https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.18.221135 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146732 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146774 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146236 Open Access Emergency Nutrition Network Menon, Purnima; Khan, Shariqua Yunus; and Sankar, Rajan. 2020. Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India. Nutrition Exchange South Asia 2: 27-28. https://www.ennonline.net/nex/southasia/2/indiasupplements
spellingShingle food supplements
infants
child nutrition
programmes
complementary foods
nutrition
child feeding
children
diet
breastfeeding
Menon, Purnima
Khan, Shariqua Yunus
Sankar, Rajan
Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title_full Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title_fullStr Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title_full_unstemmed Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title_short Integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes: Insights from India
title_sort integrating complementary food supplements at scale into national nutrition programmes insights from india
topic food supplements
infants
child nutrition
programmes
complementary foods
nutrition
child feeding
children
diet
breastfeeding
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143922
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