Assessing and Improving Childhood Nutrition and Growth Globally

Abstract

Improving maternal and child nutrition is central to global development goals and reducing the noncommunicable disease burden. Although the process of becoming malnourished starts in utero, the consequences of poor nutrition extend across the life cycle and into future generations. The global nutrition targets for 2025 include reducing infant and young child growth faltering, halting the increase of overweight children, improving breastfeeding practices, and reducing maternal anemia. In this review, we address nutritional assessment, discuss nonnutritive factors that affect growth, and endorse the evidence-based interventions that should be scaled up to improve maternal and child nutrition.

Keywords: Anthropometry; Food security; Infant feeding; Inflammation; Micronutrient malnutrition; Obesity; Overweight; Preschool children.