Bhubaneswar :CINI (Child in Need Institute), an organization working for health, nutrition, child protection & development of children in India with technical support from UNICEF, organised a Media Work shop on “Accelerating IYCF including Complementary foods and feeding practices to improve child nutrition and to prevent malnutrition in Odisha”. The experts who attended the workshop threw light on many aspects of IYCF Practices, such as nutrition promotion and prevention of malnutrition, stunting, and wasting of children which could be addressed with the help of media.
The workshop was chaired by experts including, Dr. Sunil Kumar Agarwalla, Professor, SCB Medical College & Hospital; Ms. Radhika Shrivastava, Communication Advocacy and Partnership Specialist, UNICEF; Sourav Bhattacharjee, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF; Mr. Swapan Bikash Saha, Director, CINI. Saswati N. Mohapatra, SPM and Dr. Mitali Mohanty, SBCC & CBO from CINI facilitated the workshop.
Odisha used to have high under-five and infant mortality rates and with great efforts, it has been brought down from the soaring high level. Malnutrition has always been a contributor to these deaths, especially among under-fives. However, Odisha has improved in NFHS-5 as compared to NFHS-4 with various indicators like children of 6-23 months receiving adequate diet, from 8.9 % to 20.3%, and there is also improvement in stunting and wasting indicators.
The key indicators for child under nutrition such as being underweight, stunting, wasting, and severe wasting in Odisha stand at 31%, 18%, 29.7% and 6.1% respectively (NFHS-5, 2019-21). Wasting among children has reduced from 20.4% (NFHS 4, 2015-16) to 18% (NFHS 5) and among these children, 6.1 % are Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) with a 9 to 11 times higher risk of death.
Speaking on the importance of Infant and Young Child Feeding practices, Dr. Sunil Kumar Agarwalla, Professor, SCB Medical College & Hospital, said, “The first 1000 days from the time of pregnancy till 2 years are the crucial time to provide quality life to a baby. Adequate nutrition during this time is essential to ensure the growth, health, and development of the child to its full potential.” “Mix feeding should be avoided and no milk should be given to babies other than mother’s milk for the first 6 months, as mother’s milk helps in both physical and mental development of the child. Also 400 IU of Vitamin D has to be given to each baby till 1 year of age. These practices will prevent child from under nutrition and mortality.”
To empower people with the right information by addressing the problems of infant and young child feeding, print media and television channels along with social media and Community Radio, mass awareness through TV chat shows and media publication of Human-Interest stories are the major drives.
Explaining the role of media in nutrition promotion, Ms. Radhika Shrivastava, Communication Advocacy and Partnership Specialist, UNICEF, said, “People’s trust in media has eventually increased, so media is the only source by which success stories can be described through media reports to emphasize IYCF practices at the grass root level. Media can work proactively by using examples of positive exclusive breastfeeding stories of a mother and by packaging the information through human interest stories, which can also motivate other mothers at the grassroots level. We also should promote the fathers in families to be a part of child nutrition as it’s not only the job of a mother.”
Putting a lens on the proper IYCF practices, Sourav Bhattacharjee, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF, said “India is home to one-third of the 156 million stunting children which makes India the global capital of stunting. Therefore, we need to focus on the critical factors of IYCF practices including early initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and introduction of complementary foods at the age of six months along with mother milk and proper hygiene practices. Negligence in these practices will lead to underdevelopment of child’s mental and physical growth.”
Highlighting the government’s effort to impose IYCF practices at grass root level he further said, “To improve, strengthen, evaluate and sustain the infant and young child feeding practices various flagship programs have been done in AWCs and Household levels. Some major strategies included capacity building of all frontline workers, initiation, and continuation of social behaviour change communication through different channels with primary caregivers of children, monitoring of the sessions for quality improvement ultimately leading to an improved IYCF practice among the caregivers.”
To combat child malnutrition, Govt. of Odisha in partnership with UNICEF and CINI initiatives has been taken by various flagship programs. With evidence from the pilot initiative, 10,689 AWCs across 50 blocks of four high burden districts of Odisha (Koraput, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur and Rayagada) were covered from July 2018 to Jan 2021.Various occasions like Ankur Divas, Annaprasan Day or Godbharie Day, Special Counseling Session, and VHSND at the AWC level are useful for feeding demonstration, whereas household-level counseling is more impactful.
Mr. Swapan Bikash Saha, Director, CINI, further interacted with the media on various IYCF practices and highlighted CINI’s effort to combat malnutrition in Odisha.
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