Early Childhood Nutrition
We work with the Government of India to help ensure infants and young children receive adequate nutrition, preventive care, and remedial treatment for optimal growth and development
The mission to achieve good nutrition outcomes for a child begins from the moment they are born, and UNICEF works to ensure this for as many children as possible.
From a child’s birth to sixmonths of age, exclusively feeding infants only breastmilk guarantees them a food source that is uniquely adapted to their nutrient needs, while also strengthening a baby’s immunity, being safe, clean, and healthy, no matter where they live.
Breastfeeding newborn babies within the first hour of life – known as early initiation of breastfeeding – is critical to new-born survival, growth, and development. When a baby is not early and exclusively breastfed, the consequences can be life-threatening – and the longer with greater their risk of infections, malnutrition, or deat
Globally, it is estimated that over 70 per cent of deaths among children under five years of age can be prevented by exclusive breastfeeding in the child’s first six months of life, followed by adequate complementary feeding
For the first six months, all nutritional requirements of an infant can be met by the mother’s milk. It is a complete diet, quenching both hunger and thirst and providing them with immunity. However, caregivers must begin complementary feeding after 6 months by gradually including small quantities of soft, semi-solid home-cooked food in the right quantity and quality in the child’s diet. Even then, mother’s milk remains an important source of nutrients and helps build immunity. Thus, along with complementary feeding, the child must continue breastfeeding until two years of age.
Breastfed infants exhibit higher intelligence and have better capability in fighting infections, when compared to others. Breastfeeding is also good for the nursing mother. It protects against breast cancer and may even prevent ovarian cancer and type 2 diabetes in the future. Breastfeeding is known to help improve birth spacing, too, giving a woman’s body enough time to recover from one pregnancy to the next.
The challenge
Children who are breastfed and receive adequate complementary feeding are more likely to have a healthier, more robust future. However - despite active and strategic interventions – there is still some distance to cover in the journey to ensuring this right for each child.
In India, according to the National Family Health Survey 5 (2019- 2021),
• Only 42 per cent of infants start breastfeeding within the first hour of life
• About 64 per cent of infants are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life
• A mere 46 per cent of infants aged 6 to 8 months receive complementary foods in addition to mother’s mil
This means that only 1 in 10 children across India between the age of 6 to 23 months are fed optimally as per the recommended practices of WHO’s global standards (NFHS-5, 2019-21).
The solution: UNICEF’s efforts to improve nutrition among infants and young children
At UNICEF, we believe each infant and young child must receive age-appropriate and safe complementary feeding practices – no matter who they are or where they come from. To this end, a crucial component of our work is supporting the Government of India and several State Governments in delivering essential nutrition services and practices for children to ensure that ‘age appropriate’ and ‘safe complementary feeding practices’ reach each child.
To do this, UNICEF actively works towards:
- Strengthening health facilities to provide essential infant and young child feeding services,
- Supporting community-based platforms to improve home-visits and community-based events conducted by frontline workers
- Growth and weight monitoring along with counselling on infant and young child feeding
UNICEF provides technical support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and allied State Departments with the aim of developing convergent action plans, policies and strategies for IYCF, social and behaviour change communication, along with capacity building
of resource groups to facilitate training of frontline workers.
Prevention and care for children with wasting
Within the ambit of our work towards early childhood nutrition; another critical aspect we focus on is preventing and treating children affected by wasting. Wasting is one of the most life-threatening forms of malnutrition. Children affected by wasting are too thin for their height - either due to rapid weight loss or failure to gain weight.
A child who is severely wasted would has a high risk of mortality. Even if the child survives, they continue to suffer from weakened immunity and inadequate growth and development. There are multiple factors that could cause wasting, ranging from poor health and nutrition in the child’s mother, to inadequate diets, infections because of poor sanitation, and limited access to quality health services.
The challenge
Prevalence of childhood wasting in India
Unlike famine or starvation, relatively few people have heard of severe wasting – also known as severe acute malnutrition – even though it affects around 13.6 million children globally under the age of 5.2
Wasting is highest among infants younger than six months of age - at 27 per cent. Further, analysis reveals that globally, there is stark inequity in nutrition, resulting in the most vulnerable children and communities being affected the worst. In fact, the complex interplay of caste, gender, economic status, geographical location and various other factors has direct and long-lasting impact on peoples’ diets and dietary behaviours/ practices.
A weak start often sets the precedent to a faltering future. Thus, addressing growth challenges among infants through evidence-based interventions is crucial in preventing all forms of malnutrition. While wasting might sound like an unending battle; there is hope. More than 90 per cent children with severe wasting can be treated through community-based management and care; only 5-10 per cent need facility-based care – and for this, all we need is the right support, partnerships, and interventions. It is exactly this that UNICEF’s wasting management efforts focus on.
The solution: How does UNICEF support the fight to end childhood wasting in India?
As a technical partner to the Government of India, UNICEF aims to support the Government’s efforts in reducing childhood wasting. This is critical to reaching the national and regional targets to improve nutritional outcomes among children and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
UNICEF focuses on high-impact interventions during the crucial first 1,000 days of a child’s life and further, for children under the age of six, so that every child has a foundation for a healthy and fulfilling life.
UNICEF’s strategies and activities towards early childhood nutrition include:
- Promoting, strengthening and monitoring growth and feeding practices among infants and young children, particularly in geographical pockets and social groups where progress against nutrition indicators is lower than the national/ state average
- When prevention fails and a child’s growth starts faltering, UNICEF prioritises early detection, management, and care to help children survive, recover and thrive. For instance, we support the Government’s Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres to provide quality services to children with severe wasting
- We also support State Governments deliver effective services at the community level through existing healthcare systems. This ensures that children in need have access to medical assessment, follow-up and prompt referral, essential medicines, and locally available, nutrient-rich food
- Another subset of our work is to provide technical assistance in creating a network of national and state centres of excellence in government institutions to improve the quality of care to children both via healthcare facilities as well as in communities