Infant and Young Child FeedingEn Français
- The period of gestation through the first two years of life is critical to a child’s development. It is also the time when young children are at the highest risk of malnutrition and its related diseases, which can have a lasting effect on their growth and development.
- Malnutrition is the single biggest contributor to child mortality in developing countries, and is implicated in the deaths of nearly 10,000 children every day.
- Malnutrition can also cause stunting and permanent cognitive disability, severely reducing a child’s potential to live a healthy, productive life.
What HKI Is Doing
Helen Keller International implements Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programs within the Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) framework to promote optimal breastfeeding and the timely introduction of nutritionally dense complementary foods to ensure optimal growth, development and disease resistance.
- HKI’s Infant and Young Child Feeding programs raise awareness among health workers in local communities so they understand the importance of early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding of newborns during the first 6 months of life.
- Breastfeeding enhances both infant and maternal health. Breast milk provides infants with essential antibodies necessary to resist infections while providing the appropriate amount of nutrients in an easily absorbable form. Breast milk also contains enzymes, hormones and growth factors not found in formula. Breastfed infants are less likely to suffer from diarrhea and severe bacterial infections than are non-breastfed infants.
- Breastfeeding also benefits maternal health because it helps mothers recover from childbirth, reducing the risk of life-threatening post-partum hemorrhage.
- After 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, children need additional sources of micronutrients and energy. Together with continued breastfeeding, HKI promotes the use of easily-consumed and digested foods, known as complementary foods, to balance a child’s needs at this vital stage.
- In many developing nations, complementary foods of appropriate nutritional value are often not available or known, which can have a severe, detrimental impact on a young child’s health and growth. In some cases. mothers need to be shown improved recipes for baby foods; in others, they need supplements to meet the elevated nutrition needs of this period.
- Helen Keller International helps local communities by identifying local foods for enriching traditional baby foods and by promoting and distributing point-of-use fortification products, such as Sprinkles, to provide young children with essential vitamins and minerals. (For more information, see Food Fortification.)
- We also work with government and local agencies to create materials to train health workers and promote positive nutrition behaviors in local communities.
Helen Keller International is committed to preventing malnutrition worldwide, and our approach to Infant and Young Child Feeding is an important strategy to help accomplish that goal.
- Recent News
- "The Breast Milk Cure"
- Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): The Road Forward for the U.S.
- UNICEF Launches New Report on Child and Maternal Nutrition
- Key Publications
- What is Vitamin A deficiency and what foods can help prevent it
- Iron and folic acid supplements in pregnancy improve child survival in Indonesia
- New World Health Organization guidelines and Home Fortification Technical Advisory Group program guidance on the use of multiple micronutrient powders for home fortification of foods for pregnant women and young children.