WHO Guiding Principles on Feeding Non-Breastfed Infants

WHO has just issued a booklet, Guiding principles for feeding non-breastfed infants, 6-24 months of age, which provides health workers with a grounding in the principles involved in designing and safely feeding diets to young non-breastfed infants. The content includes sections on:

• food consistency, meal frequency, and energy density
• nutrient content of foods
• use of vitamin-mineral supplements and fortified foods
• safe preparation and storage
• responsive feeding, and
• feeding during and after illness.

The annexes contain practical advice on developing locally appropriate feeding recommendations based on these Guiding Principles, and addresses key issues around early breastfeeding cessation, and feeding young children of HIV-positive mothers.

The publication is available online at http://www.who.int/child-adolescenthealth/New_Publications/NUTRITION/ISBN_92_4_159343_1.pdf For further information, contact: Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH), World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland tel + 41 22 791 32 81, fax + 41 22 791 48 53, email: cah@who.int http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health