What we do

Promoting optimal nutrition practices

Ensuring good infant and young child nutritional status is dependent on a continuum of critical nutrition and health practices that begin during pregnancy and continue through at least the first two years of life. The sharpest increase in chronic malnutrition, the best measure of overall nutritional status, occurs between 6 and 24 months of age.

To prevent malnutrition and save lives, the Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project promotes optimal nutrition practices that are strongly based on international recommendations. We assist families, communities, and countries in using the following optimal nutrition practices.

Optimal maternal nutrition practices

A chance for a healthy life begins during pregnancy and lactation, when children depend on their mothers to get essential energy, protein, fats, and micronutrients. We support mothers to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of their diets and promote the use of micronutrient supplements, when needed, during pregnancy and lactation.

Optimal breastfeeding practices

One of the best ways to prevent the consequences of malnutrition is to ensure that mothers and families understand and are empowered to follow optimal breastfeeding practices. Breastmilk is the perfect food for babies. It has all of the energy, nutrients, fluids, and antibodies that a baby needs to thrive during the first six months of life. In addition, it is safe, hygienic, and readily available at no cost. That’s why mothers should breastfeed exclusively during this time—without adding any other foods or liquids, including water.

We recommend and encourage mothers to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of childbirth, so that their infants receive critical nutrients and protection against infection during the first three days of life. Mothers should continue to practice frequent, on-demand, and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continue to breastfeed, along with adding complementary foods, for up to two years. Mothers should practice skin-to-skin contact when breastfeeding their infants to help with temperature regulation.

Optimal complementary feeding practices

From 6 to 24 months, children need complementary foods in addition to breastmilk to ensure that they continue to grow and thrive. However, in many countries children either receive food too early or too late. We encourage mothers to give their children the appropriate amounts of high-quality, hygienically prepared complementary foods to meet their children’s nutritional needs.

In communities where traditional complementary foods lack some or all of the energy and nutrients young children require, we support the use of innovative products like fortified complementary foods, micronutrient powders, or lipid-based nutrient supplements to prevent malnutrition during this critical timeframe.

Improved infant feeding during and after illness

Children’s food and fluid needs increase when they are ill—a time when they are often anorexic. Although many children decrease their food intake during illness, research has shown that they should continue to breastfeed to help prevent dehydration and malnutrition and assist in recovery. Depending on their age, infants and children need additional breastmilk, foods, fluids, and water during and after an illness to help them regain any lost weight or fluids.

Safe feeding practices for infants affected by HIV/AIDS

Children with HIV-positive mothers have special nutritional needs. We provide nutritional guidance based on international recommendations from the World Health Organization’s 2006 guidelines on HIV and infant feeding to ensure safe and optimal infant feeding practices and increase HIV-free survival for infants and young children. We support HIV-positive mothers in making the most appropriate decisions about feeding their children.

Photos: Aurelio Ayala III; 2005 Paul J. Crystal, Courtesy of Photoshare