Lancet Series: Maternal and Child Nutrition

This series of articles, published in the Lancet, focuses on maternal and child undernutrition, providing new estimates of the numbers of children dying from malnutrition every year. The series highlights how the persistent burden of malnutrition can be tackled, presenting the best evidence and latest developments in the field. It also assesses national progress in nutrition programmes and international efforts toward previous recommendations.The key focus is on scaling up interventions which improve outcomes which have already been proven. These include:Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding up to six monthsBetter complimentary feeding for the next 18 monthsVitamin Z and zinc, which can improve survival ratesIodine and iron, which can improve developmental outcomesBetter diet in pregnancy, including micro-nutrient supplementationDownloads:Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low income and middle income countries: examines the prevalence and consequences of nutritional conditions during the life course from adolescence (for girls) through pregnancy to childhood and discusses the implications for adult healthEvidence-based interventions for improvement of maternal and child nutrition: what can be done and at what cost? covers the evidence supporting nutrition-specific interventions and the health outcomes and cost of increasing their population coverageNutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: how can they help to accelerate progress in improving maternal and child nutrition? examines nutrition-sensitive interventions and approaches and their potential to improve nutrition. It discusses the features of an enabling environment that are needed to provide support for nutrition programmes, and how they can be favourably influencedThe politics of reducing malnutrition: building commitment and accelerating progress: discuss the ways in which three domains (knowledge and evidence, politics and governance, and capacity and resources) are pivotal to create and sustain political momentum, and to translate momentum into results in high-burden countriesA set of comments examine what is currently being done, and what should be done nationally and internationally to address nutritional and developmental needs of women and children in low and middle income countries:(To read the articles, follow the links below. Free subscription is required to access the full articles.)Nutrition: a quintessential sustainable development goalMaternal and child nutrition: building momentum for impactDelivery platforms for sustained nutrition in EthiopiaOnly collective action will end undernutritionNutrition-sensitive food systems: from rhetoric to actionGlobal child and maternal nutrition - the SUN risesEarly nutritition and adult outcomes: pieces of the puzzleSee also here for a related articles. Free subscription is required to access the full articles:Mortality risk in preterm and small-for-gestational-age infants in low-income and middle-income countries: a pooled country analysisAssociations of linear growth and relative weight gain during early life with adult health and human capital in countries of low and middle income: findings from five birth cohort studies