Educational tool for infant feeding

This solution was shared by ACT team Wageningen University , 21 June 2022

Print date: 13 April 2024 01:02

Description of the innovative solution

Community building Education - adult Education - youth Information/communication Women empowerment Consumer choice Food environment - personal Tuft's Innovation Lab

This solution is an "easy-to-understand" educational toolkit that helps caregivers to provide their infants with the right amount and energy density of the food. In many contexts, infant-feeding practices should be improved. Educational tools such as the innovative Healthy Baby Toolkit is shown to be helpful in improving these practices. The tool consists of a bowl with lines that indicate the right portion size for different age categories (6 – 23 months). Moreover, the toolkit includes a spoon with holes that guides the caregiver on the ideal thickness of (biofortified) complementary and infant food. A card with information is also provided (adapted to the local context). This card provides information on breastfeeding practices, food safety, how to use the toolkit, and which foods to give in a visual manner. By making the toolkits from sustainable material, they can be re-used over time. Through this solution, infants are provided with enough and sufficient nutritious and safe foods. Especially during their first 100 days of life, a sufficient diet is critical for good emotional and physical development.

Primary users

Dietary impact

The toolkits provide caregivers with an easy-to-understand bowl and spoon to feed their infants. The bowl helps to feed infants the right amount of food and the use of the spoon ensures that this food has the right energy density. This helps to prevent undernourishment in the first two years of a child’s life, resulting in a decrease in stunting and wasting. Subsequently, mental and physical health later in life is positively affected. Simultaneously, the toolkit can prevent overnutrition in infants. Information provided with the toolkit educates caregivers on the importance of breastfeeding, dietary diversity, and hygiene for food safety. Altogether, the toolkit helps caregivers to better nourish their newborns, ensuring better development. This will decrease the number of deaths and/or diseases due to malnutrition and food-borne diseases.

Planetary impact

This innovation contributes to planetary health through the reduction of plastic pollution and food waste. The toolkit will be produced with the use of sustainable materials and can be reused. Food waste will be reduced since the bowl allows the right portion sizes for infants and combats over nutrition. Indirectly, to support this innovation, food availability and affordability need to increase. This can be done by promoting and supporting local agricultural practices. Using local products with small supply chains has a positive impact on planetary health by for example reducing GHG emissions and growing native crops.

Equity impact

By making this toolkit easily accessible and affordable, everyone can benefit from the positive dietary health impacts related to the use of this toolkit. The toolkit will cost a small amount of money to increase the value that people attach to it and make it more likely to be used in the long term. Meanwhile, caregivers can for example receive food in exchange for buying the toolkit to stimulate purchasing. The toolkit will include easy and accessible information so that illiterate people will not be excluded from the toolkit and from the provided information on nutritious, energy-dense, and safe foods. Stimulating a good start for all may lower the current inequity in the world. A better 1000 first days of life for everyone leads to more equality in terms of mental and physical development and therefore possibly also school and later life performance.

Main concerns

The toolkit can get broken, lost, or thrown away when children are getting older. Furthermore, people may forget how to use the toolkit or the toolkit may not become part of daily habits and behavior. Once the funding and/or implementation of this solution stops, the toolkit and knowledge may then fade away over time. Another concern when implementing this solution is its changing target group, due to children growing up and children being born. Therefore, it is important to make the whole community aware of this tool and its benefits. Handing out the toolkits for a low amount of money may lead to a lower attachment to this tool and increases the risk of the tool not being used or thrown away. To increase attachment to this tool, emotional engagement can be induced, e.g. via name or figure engravements on the plate and/or spoon.

Supply chain segment

Consumers Educational, outreach and empowerment aspects

Maturity level

Prototype

Criteria

Food quality Food safety

SDG target

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG 4: Quality Education SDG 5: Gender Equality SDG 10: Reduced Inequality

Context

Urban Peri-urban Rural Marine/Coastal

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