Health Care : Current Reviews

K E Y-Knowing and engaging for young child food and feeding: Demystification by involving ordinary people in assessment

3^rd Indo-Global Summit & Expo on Healthcare

October 05-07, 2015 New Delhi, India

Sakshi Dudeja, Abhinav Motheram, Remy Hans, Prabhsimran, Vajinder Thakur and Smriti Pahwa

ASER Centre-Pratham, India

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

Under nutrition continues to be a problem facing our country. Nearly one third of the childhood deaths are attributed to under nutrition. Sound Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices have been emphasized to combat under nutrition that sets early on. There is a policy push in India to unpack age appropriate complementary feeding so that the same can be better understood and adopted at community level. An innovation was hatched extrapolating ASER/ Pratham approach for large scale assessment and community participation approach in education for assessing IYCF.40 villages were randomly sampled of Hoshiarpur II block using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling technique. Villages selected were as per the Census 2011village list. Households with children aged 2 years or below in the village were identified. 16 households were sampled from each village giving us a total targeted sample of 640 households.78% children below 6 months were given only mother�??s milk. Consumption of protective foods (62.5%) was low across all age groups. Few households (35.3%) took measures to improve energy density of the meals given to children. Only 30% of the households reported to be giving purified water to children. Majority of the households have access to facilities but they have very little knowledge about right practices that need to be followed for development of a child. It seems to be not so much of a problem of access but a problem of awareness. Easy assessments instruments like the one used here might have a potential to demystify young child food and feeding by involving ordinary people in assessments and understanding the gaps to propel action.

Biography :

Sakshi Dudeja has completed her MSc in Food and Nutrition from Delhi University. She has worked with Hriday-Public health foundation of India for 2 years. She is working as a Research Associate in Social Sector Unit of ASER Centre-Pratham for more than 3 years. She has published one paper in a reputed journal.

Email: sakshidudeja@gmail.com