Promotion of Complimentary Feeding Practices in Bangladesh

Infant feeding practices and nutritional status among children is interrelated and link is well established. Incidence of malnutrition sharply rises during 6-9 months of age in most of the developing countries which coincide with the period of complimentary feeding (CF). This prospective randomized trial will be implemented in ongoing health and demographic surveillance system of Matlab, ICDDR,B and will be nested into an ongoing maternal and child health services area. Area of community health workers (four blocks) will be divided into two pairs and each pair will be randomly assigned into intervention or control groups. The eligible and consented mother-infant newborn will be recruited either into an intervention or control groups based on the areas of the paired block. The mothers and family members of the intervention area will receive intensive counseling on complementary feeding practices through community health workers. In total about 360 mother-infant pair will be recruited in the study for each site. Data on children's anthropometry (weight and lengths), information on complementary feeding practices and related covariates will be collected through trained research staffs. Data will be evaluated on reduction of burden of malnutrition (stunting, underweight, wasting) and complimentary feeding index between intervention and control groups.