Healthy Infant Feeding Education Integrated in Traditional Indian Practices

In the Indian culture, there is a celebratory tradition called Anna-Prashan (food feeding or initiating of food other than milk), which marks the first time that an infant eats cereal/semi-solid food. On Tuesday July 17, 2012, mothers and their six month old infants from the Basti (slum) New Jagdish Nagar gathered together to part take in this rite of passage. For families living in slum neighborhoods under poor conditions, there is very little education or awareness about the importance of nutrition and supplementary feeding after six months of age. This community event serves as an example of how education and tradition can come together to motivate appropriate nutrition behaviours. Sampoorn Mahila Samiti, is a networked federation of 16 groups formally linked with 28 other groups newer groups that are less formally linked. Sampoorn, with guidance and support from Urban Health Resource Center (UHRC) and in close partnership with basti-level women’s groups, organize such “Annaprashan” events periodically in different clusters of Baanganga area in order to utilise this traditional ceremony into an educational and behavior promotion event for the young children of that cluster of bastis.

                                              

The topics discussed during the event is focused on weaning practices and how to properly feed their children, what kinds of foods are vital when weaning, hygiene, sanitation, proper hand washing, and general suggestions for maternal health. 

With their children at hand, mothers were seated in a circle with a bowl of kheer (boiled rice, milk & sugar) in the center ready to feed their children solid food for the first time. Before the children started eating their delicious kheer, Shabnam Verma a UHRC staff member, discussed the importance of proper nutrition practices that were imperative for these mothers to take into consideration. She was actively engaging with these mothers by showing them pictures, asking questions, and making sure they were included in the dialogue.  All of the mothers were sitting eagerly to learn the proper ways to take care of their children. This sparked interest in the eyes of these women because it brought clarity to their traditional somewhat unclear ideas about infant feeding.

  

Similarly, this initiative has the capacity to help many women in need that are not able to obtain the proper knowledge otherwise. In particular, there was one mother who was able to gain information to potentially save her child’s life. She was new immigrant to the Basti New Jagdish Nagar and was unfamiliar with what was going on. Her one year old child was severely malnourished and was in dire need of care.  With great concern and care, all of the other mothers turned to her and gave her advice on how to help bring her child back to normalcy. The gathered women and UHRC staff members spoke to her about the proper infant feeding practices as well as providing her with helpful information for her child’s immunizations. She didn’t have the necessary information to keep her child in a healthy state and this event helped create an internal awareness for herself as well as for her infant. One of the mothers offered to help her by making frequent visits and UHRC has made sure to have an eye out for her.  She was open to learn about her child’s condition and with the new learned information and guidance she will now be able to help her child.

This cultural event was a successful combination of traditional forethought and educational guidance. The messages given to these women reinforce healthy behaviors, in turn, leading to better health outcomes for mothers and their children. These children were not only given real food for the first time, but they were given the knowledge that will support a lifetime of healthy upbringing. 

Namaste from India,

Farah 

Me in pink playing with a very cute Indian baby!

Hygiene & Hand Washing in Indian Slums

The Monsoon season is here in India and in full force. Indians all over are celebrating this beautiful season. However, this is a time where sickness is widespread and people are prone to air borne diseases and sickness.  Specifically, slum neighborhoods are among the most vulnerable populations to experience the most unhygienic conditions—poor sanitation, lack of access to clean drinking water, and poor infrastructure. In most slums, there is a lack of a proper drainage system, which means that flooding is prolific.  Similarly, the slums do not have paved roads and water puddles can eventually form into a sea of swarming mosquitoes and pests.  One of the most important Public Health principles within these populations is proper hygiene practices and sanitation promotion. Children are an especially important age group because educating them early on proper techniques can prevent diseases and keep them healthy. Generally, children living in slums do not have the knowledge of the proper ways to wash their hands and when to wash.  There is little to no awareness about the use of soap and its importance for preventing diseases. Slum dwellers only knowledge of soap use is that it is only customary to wash their hands after defecation. Educating children about the importance of staying healthy during the monsoon season enlightens them about germs, bacteria, how illness spreads, and ways they can keep themselves healthy this monsoon season.  

I prepared a lesson plan for the children’s groups so that they can gain awareness and knowledge about imperative principles of sanitation and hygiene. I visited two children’s groups Bal Ganesh and Ektah Bal Samu to administer the lessons. Since germs are not seen to the human eye, I thought that showing the kids how many germs do in fact exist on their hands on any given moment would be the best way to educate them. With a dab of glitter on each child’s hand, they were able to see that germs are like glitter, in that, although we can’t see them they are still there. We called up one volunteer to show us how to properly wash his hands. He told us how he would wash his hands and then we explained the proper way of doing it. Shabnam explained the statistic that there are about 50,000 germs on our hands and the kids were shocked. They we stunned to learn the impact germs can have on one’s health and what they could do to prevent themselves from illness.  Although soap is available in slum households there is a lack of its use during important periods of disease transmission. Specifically, children do not see washing hands as an important task before eating food, before cooking food, after defecation, etc. These children now have the proper knowledge to guide them to positive health behavior habits this monsoon season.