Appropriate nutrition during early life, coming mainly from adequate infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, is essential for optimal growth and development. This Data Note describes the trends and patterns in key IYCF practices and food consumption patterns among children, summarizing state and district data from the third and fourth rounds of National Family Health Surveys (2006 & 2016).

Early life nutrition sets the stage for the health, nutrition, and development of young children. Optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices begin with timely initiation of breastfeeding, followed by exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding. This Data Note provides an overview of trends and patterns in IYCF practices in India at the national-, state-, and district levels based on the 2015-16 and 2019-21 National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) data. IYCF indicators were created following World Health Organization and UNICEF’s 2021 guidelines.

We aimed to examine the current policy guidance for ICDS SNP and operationalization of these at the state-level. To do so, we compared India’s SNP guidance for THR with global guidelines for infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Additionally, the current state of the take-home ration supplied for infants and young children across India was reviewed and summarized. Findings on state- and district-specific coverage of services is described elsewhere.

In the last decade, addressing the persistent problem of maternal, infant, young child and adolescent malnutrition in India has gained significant attention. With the well-established serious implications of malnutrition on mortality and morbidity; mental health and cognitive development; activity and productivity and overall economic development, today there is an unprecedented political commitment to improving the grave woman and child nutrition scenario in the country. POSHAN ABHIYAAN (Nutrition Mission) was launched in a Mission mode by the Honourable Prime Minister of India on March 8, 2018, followed by measures for an effective implementation of an integrated nutrition strategy through POSHAN 2.0 in 2022. The book with 15 chapters tracks the history of evolvement of public nutrition policies and strategies, presents an update on the nutrition scenario, analyses the experiences and synthesises emerging lessons in the prevention and control of malnutrition. Additionally, the book includes chapters with details of each of the various government systems such as Health, ICDS, NRLM, PDS, Education/MDM, Water-Sanitation that provide lead in mainstreaming nutrition actions that directly or indirectly impact on accelerating the improvement of the nutrition situation of women, adolescents and children. The book is intended to be an indispensable reference for teachers and students of nutrition, community medicine, public health and development as well as professionals involved in the formulation and implementation of the nutrition policies and programmes. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

In the Indian context.

COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING PRACTICES OF MOTHERS OF INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN AND ITS DETERMINANTS IN DIFFERENT SOCIO ECONOMIC STRATA IN DELHI, INDIAKomal Rathi1, G.S Toteja2, Neena Bhatia11 Food and Nutrition Department, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, India.2 Division of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India. Background: Optimum nutrition is indispensable for a childu2019s growth, health and behavioral development from birth to two years of age. Infant and young child feeding practices (IYCF) are an important determinant of nutritional status for a child.Aim: The study assessed the extent and pattern of complementary feeding practices of mothers of infants and young children, 6-23 months of age from different socioeconomic strata (SES) i.e. middle-income group (MIG), low-income group (LIG) and urban slums (US) in an urban area of Delhi. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, being carried out on 600, mother-child dyads (infants and young children 6-23 months of age). IYCF practices were assessed using the World health organization (WHO, 2008) IYCF indicators. The study also determined the demographic and socioeconomic factors of complementary feeding practices. The association between maternal dietary diversity with child dietary diversity using the minimum dietary diversity tool for women (MDD-W) by FAO (Food and Agriculture organization) 2016 and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) indicator for infants and young children by WHO, 2008 was also explored.Results: Preliminary findings of the study have been shown for 101 mother-child pair (MIG-54, LIG-30, and US-17). The mean age of children was 14.3 months and that of mothers was 26.6 years. Mothers of children belonging to MIG had better IYCF practices as compared to LIG. The consumption of iron-rich or iron-fortified foods was found to be low among all SES (27.7%). Age of children was found to be significantly associated with achieving MDD and minimum meal frequency (MMF) (p

This document presents a set of new and updated indicators to assess infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices at household level. It is a follow-up to the 2008 document “Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices – Part I & II”. In total, there are 17 recommended IYCF indicators in the 2021 edition. Seven are new, and four of the 2008 indicators have been excluded from the 2021 list of IYCF indicators. In addition, three indicators of unhealthy food and beverage consumption are included. Unlike in 2008, no distinction is made between core and optional indicators in this set of recommendations. It is important to assess data using the full set of indicators for any given population and to report all findings. This guidance document provides tools for the collection and calculation of the indicators. It is intended for use by managers of large-scale population-based surveys that will collect information on the status of feeding practices among infants and young children less than 2 years of age. Indicators can be assessed through large-scale population-based surveys, including the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS).