Creating Healthy Beginnings through Nutrition

Newborn nutrition encompasses the critical feeding practices and interventions needed to support optimal growth, development, and survival during the first days, weeks, and months of life.

Key evidence-based interventions include early initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth to provide colostrum and establish feeding patterns, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months without any additional foods or liquids, Kangaroo Mother Care involving continuous skin-to-skin contact to support feeding and thermoregulation, and specialized feeding protocols for very low birth weight infants (under 1,500 grams) who require carefully managed nutritional support.

These interventions form the foundation of newborn nutrition care, addressing both the universal needs of healthy newborns and the specialized requirements of preterm and low birth weight infants who face increased risks of mortality, growth failure, and developmental complications.

What Are the Benefits of Good Nutrition for Newborns?

• Dramatically Reduces Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity: Early breastfeeding can reduce neonatal deaths by up to 70%, with Kangaroo Mother Care providing proven mortality reduction for preterm infants.
• Prevents Lifelong Growth Failure and Developmental Delays: Optimal nutrition during the first 1,000 days prevents stunting and supports critical brain development when 70% of neural growth occurs.
• Provides Strong Economic Returns with Minimal Investment: Every dollar invested yields returns through reduced healthcare costs and improved productivity.
• Strengthens Health Systems Through Simple, Scalable Interventions: Evidence-based practices can be implemented across all care levels with minimal infrastructure requirements.
• Addresses the Double Burden of Malnutrition: Prevents both early undernutrition and later obesity, tackling the dual challenge facing LMICs.

How to Implement

What’s the Evidence?

• Lancet Breastfeeding Series: The deaths of 823,000 children and 20,000 mothers each year could be averted through universal breastfeeding, along with economic savings of US$300 billion.
• WHO: Evidence from systematic reviews of 754 very low birth weight infants shows that early feeding protocols lead to faster achievement of full feeds and reduced hospital stays without increasing complications.
• WHO: Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months provides critical protection against gastrointestinal infections in both developing and industrialized countries, while early initiation within 1 hour of birth protects newborns from acquiring infections and significantly reduces newborn mortality compared to partial or no breastfeeding.
• WHO: Breast milk serves as a major source of energy and nutrients for children aged 6-23 months, providing half or more of energy needs between 6-12 months and one-third of energy needs between 12-24 months. It also serves as a critical source of nutrition during illness, which reduces mortality among malnourished children.

Key Indicators

• Percentage of infants 0-5 months of age fed exclusively with breast milk.
• Percentage of preterm and low birth weight infants who receive continuous skin-to-skin contact for at least 8 hours per day.
• Average number of days to reach full nutritional feeds (150ml/kg/day) for very low birth weight infants.
• Weight gain per day (grams/kg/day) for preterm and low birth weight infants during hospital stay.
• Percentage of health facilities with essential supplies, equipment, and protocols for early breastfeeding and specialized feeding support.