Child Feeding Practices and Parenting

Dear Colleagues,

Breastfeeding (BF) provides infants milk from the mother’s breast, and complementary feeding (CF) provides infants other foods or fluids in addition to breast milk at 6 months of age. BF and CF are collectively called infant and young child feeding (IYCF) or feeding practices.  Optimal feeding practices in the first two years of life have been shown to lower morbidity and mortality, reduce the risk of chronic disease, improve overall child development, and reduce the health costs of a country. Yet, in many countries, over half of the infants under 6 months of age and more than three quarters of children aged 6–23 months do not receive optimal nutrition. This impact of inadequate feeding practices may be attributed to about 45% of all child mortality globally.

In 2019, the world experienced a new pandemic called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which resulted in a severe acute respiratory syndrome that triggered a high global mortality rate. To reduce the risk of severe complications and mortality associated with COVID-19 and to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among feeding mothers and families, feeding mothers and their infants were vaccinated, despite limited research evidence that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted from mother to child through breastfeeding. 

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed new guidelines for assessing IYCF or feeding practices and recommended 17 key IYCF indicators, including 2 optional BF indicators. In addition, 6 of the 15 core indicators are used for assessing BF indicators, while 9 are used for assessing CF indicators. These newly introduced IYCF or feeding indicators aimed to reduce preventable mortality by achieving infants' optimal growth, development, and health. These IYCF or feeding practices measures also aim to provide public health researchers and policymakers with a consistent measure for assessing global feeding indicators.

Meeting the 2020 feeding practices guidelines during COVID-19 to protect and support feeding mothers and their young children remains a critical public health issue, even though the WHO and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) advise feeding mothers with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to continue the recommended IYCF practices.

While all these recommendations, advice, and limited research have led to an improved global understanding of the benefits of practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, more research and efforts are needed if we are to continue to advance in this area and realise the full potential of feeding practices in this current pandemic and other future pandemics. 

This Special Issue will collate recent high-quality research in the field of breastfeeding, weaning and infant and young child health and focus on manuscripts that used novel methods to assess ways to improve feeding practices during this COVID-19 pandemic, including technology-based approaches, such as the feeding pasteurisation method.

Dr. Kingsley E. Agho
Guest Editor

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