Enhancing growth and development among malnourished infants recovering from serious illness

Globally, 8.5 million infants aged under 6 months (u6m) are acutely malnourished and are more likely to die of common infections and have impaired neurological development than well-nourished infants. This burden has been largely overlooked. Current recommendations focus on re-establishing exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) during inpatient treatment and discharging when consistent weight gain is achieved on breastmilk alone. Recently, I examined breastfeeding peer supporters to apply these guidelines among hospitalised malnourished infants; 81% were EBF by discharge, however, by 6 weeks after discharge, they mostly did not meet the criteria for full nutritional recovery. I think that providing support after discharge will improve recovery. I plan to design and pilot a breastfeeding support intervention and test its effectiveness in a randomised control trial among 250 malnourished infants (4-12 weeks old) recovering from an illness. The results will feed into efforts to improve outcomes for vulnerable malnourished infants after discharge.