Integrating Infant Feeding Counselling with Psychosocial Stimulation to Improve Child Growth and Development in an Urban Slum of Bangladesh

A combination of poverty, malnutrition, illness and a lack of stimulation at home puts at risk the cognitive development of millions of children in the developing world. Operating in an urban slum of Bangladesh, women trained within this project will make 13 home visits in a child's first year of life to counsel parents on infant feeding and psychosocial stimulation - an integrated, sustainable, cost-effective approach potentially able to be implemented through the existing health system in Bangladesh. In the scale-up phase, the project will promote integrating such counselling into mainstream government nutrition programs provided through newly-established community clinics.