'It's not just about food': mother-infant interaction and the wider context of nutrition

Abstract

In recent years, attention has increasingly focused on the wider context of nutrition, rather than simply on calorie and nutrient intake. Recent estimates put the figure of people in the world living in extreme poverty (an income of less than $1 a day) at 1.1 billion. This has significant implications for nutritional deficiencies in infants and young children. In this paper, we will show how the physical growth and psychological development of infants and children are intimately linked, and how many of the same aetiological factors (such as caregiver sensitivity, psychosocial support, communicative exchange between infant/child and their caregiver) are implicated in both domains. Preliminary evidence indicates that community-based interventions impact on the mother-infant relationship as well as infant physical growth, and contribute to the increasing sense of how aspects of the early relationship between infants and their caretakers are crucial to any complete understanding of infant growth and development. The paediatric food-based dietary guidelines (PFBDGs) include guidelines relating to the mother-infant relationship and may thus prove to be a significant tool in community interventions.