INCH · Infant nutrition, cognition, and health

The complementary feeding period, i.e. the time when infants are introduced to foods and liquids different from milk, has important implications for children's long-term social, physical, and cognitive development.While a large number of studies have surveyed the types of weaning foods provided, there is still a significant lack of research on the behavioural aspects involved in this important transition period. In terms of outcomes, existing studies have mostly focused on health effects, with very little attention paid to cognitive or language development.Lastly, most of the existing research is based on data from Western, industrialized countries, leaving us with a very incomplete picture of infant feeding practices and the resulting outcomes.Using a bottom-up approach, my project aims to fill these gaps by developing standardized tools for measuring infant feeding practices in rural and urban African settings, and investigating the impact of different feeding practices on children's health and developmental outcomes.Building on local contacts and relevant experience from a decade of research in Africa, I will (1) use focus group discussions to create a culture-sensitive questionnaire for measuring infant feeding practices; (2) use the questionnaire for a survey of infant feeding practices across rural and urban communities in Kenya; (3) collect detailed data on infants' nutrient intake; (4) assess children's motor, cognitive, and language development using tools which have been validated in similar African contexts, and correlate my data from 2, 3, and 4 to (5) identify feeding practices which relate to positive outcomes and can form the basis of future interventions.