Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Sep;9 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):116-30.
doi: 10.1111/mcn.12083.

Designing appropriate complementary feeding recommendations: tools for programmatic action

Bernadette Daelmans  1 , Elaine Ferguson, Chessa K Lutter, Neha Singh, Helena Pachón, Hilary Creed-Kanashiro, Monica Woldt, Nuné Mangasaryan, Edith Cheung, Roger Mir, Rossina Pareja, André Briend
Affiliations

Designing appropriate complementary feeding recommendations: tools for programmatic action

Bernadette Daelmans et al. Matern Child Nutr. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Suboptimal complementary feeding practices contribute to a rapid increase in the prevalence of stunting in young children from age 6 months. The design of effective programmes to improve infant and young child feeding requires a sound understanding of the local situation and a systematic process for prioritizing interventions, integrating them into existing delivery platforms and monitoring their implementation and impact. The identification of adequate food-based feeding recommendations that respect locally available foods and address gaps in nutrient availability is particularly challenging. We describe two tools that are now available to strengthen infant and young child-feeding programming at national and subnational levels. ProPAN is a set of research tools that guide users through a step-by-step process for identifying problems related to young child nutrition; defining the context in which these problems occur; formulating, testing, and selecting behaviour-change recommendations and nutritional recipes; developing the interventions to promote them; and designing a monitoring and evaluation system to measure progress towards intervention goals. Optifood is a computer-based platform based on linear programming analysis to develop nutrient-adequate feeding recommendations at lowest cost, based on locally available foods with the addition of fortified products or supplements when needed, or best recommendations when the latter are not available. The tools complement each other and a case study from Peru illustrates how they have been used. The readiness of both instruments will enable partners to invest in capacity development for their use in countries and strengthen programmes to address infant and young child feeding and prevent malnutrition.

Keywords: Optifood; ProPAN; complementary feeding; infant and young child feeding; infant and young child nutrition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Helena Pachón works at the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) which receives in‐kind contributions from vitamin and mineral pre‐mix companies to host meals and breaks at FFI co‐sponsored workshops held worldwide. All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure and products of the Pro PAN modules.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of the Optifood process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arabi M., Frongillo E.A., Pachón H. & Lutter C.K. (2005) Inadequate patterns of complementary feeding in 6–24 mo children in four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The FASEB Journal 19, A1487.
    1. Arabi M., Pachón H. & Lutter C. (2009) Use of ProPAN tool for developing context‐specific recommendations to improve complementary feeding‐examples from a four‐country study in Latin America and the Caribbean . International Congress of Nutrition: Thailand.
    1. Barikmo I., Ouattara F. & Oshaug A. (2009) Table de composition d'aliments du Mali / Food Composition Table for Mali. Akershus University College: Norway.
    1. Briend A., Darmon N. & Ferguson E. (2003) Linear programming: a rigorous method for analysing and optimising children's diets during the complementary feeding period. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 36, 12–22. - PubMed
    1. Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (2000) Food Composition Tables for Use in the English Speaking Caribbean, Supplement. Pan American Health Organization: Kingston, Jamaica.