Kuntal Kumar Saha, Edward A. Frongillo, Dewan S Alam, Shams El Arifeen et al.
Background The World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund recommend a global strategy for feeding infants and young children for proper nutrition and health. Objective We evaluated the effects of following current infant feeding recommendations on the gr...
Phuong Hong Nguyen, Rasmi Avula, Marie T. Ruel, Kuntal Kumar Saha et al.
Dietary diversity (DD) reflects micronutrient adequacy of the diet and is associated with better child growth. Emerging evidence suggests that maternal and child DD are associated. This could have measurement and programmatic implications. Data on mother-child (6-24 mo) dyads in Bangladesh, Vietnam,...
Purnima Menon, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Khaled Adiba et al.
BACKGROUND: Complementary feeding (CF) contributes to child growth and development, but few CF programs are delivered at scale. Alive & Thrive addressed this in Bangladesh through intensified interpersonal counseling (IPC), mass media (MM), and community mobilization (CM). OBJECTIVE: The objective w...
Purnima Menon, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Khaled Adiba et al.
BACKGROUND: Despite recommendations supporting optimal breastfeeding, the number of women practicing exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) remains low, and few interventions have demonstrated implementation and impact at scale. Alive & Thrive was implemented over a period of 6 y (2009-2014) and aimed to imp...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Edward A. Frongillo, Dewan S Alam, Shams El Arifeen et al.
OBJECTIVE: Despite a strong relationship between household food security and the health and nutritional status of adults and older children, the association of household food security with the growth of infants and young children has not been adequately studied, particularly in developing countries....
Phuong Hong Nguyen, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Disha Ali, Purnima Menon et al.
OBJECTIVE: We assessed associations of maternal common mental disorders (CMD) with undernutrition and two common illnesses in children aged 0-5 years. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. Maternal CMD was measured using the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20. Child undernutrition was defined as stunting...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Edward A. Frongillo, Dewan S Alam, Shams El Arifeen et al.
Although household food security (HHFS) has been shown to affect diet, nutrition, and health of adults and also learning in children, no study has examined associations with infant feeding practices (IFP). We studied 1343 infants born between May 2002 and December 2003 in the Maternal and Infant Nut...
Rahul Rawat, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Disha Ali, Kuntal Kumar Saha et al.
BACKGROUND: Traditionally, impact evaluations have focused primarily on answering what impact programs or interventions have, with less attention to how or why impacts are achieved, or not achieved. The Alive & Thrive initiative, a 6-year program that aims to improve infant and young child feeding (...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Annette Engström, Jena Hamadani, Fahmida Tofail et al.
BACKGROUND: Exposure to arsenic via drinking water has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant morbidity and mortality. Little is known, however, about the effects of arsenic on child growth. OBJECTIVE: We assessed potential effects of early-life arsenic exposure on weight and len...
Sk Masum Billah, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Abdullah Nurus Salam Khan, Ashfaqul Haq Chowdhury et al.
BACKGROUND: In 2011, the Bangladesh Government introduced the National Nutrition Services (NNS) by leveraging the existing health infrastructure to deliver nutrition services to pregnant woman and children. This study examined the quality of nutrition services provided during antenatal care (ANC) an...
Rukhsana Haider, Kuntal Kumar Saha
BACKGROUND: Exclusive breastfeeding and growth faltering during infancy remain challenges in Bangladesh. The Training & Assistance for Health & Nutrition Foundation has been working to address this gap through community-based peer counsellors since 2000. In this paper, we assessed the programme's pr...
Edward A. Frongillo, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Tina Sanghvi et al.
Background Promoting adequate nutrition through interventions to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) has the potential to contribute to child development. Objective We examined whether an intensive intervention package that was aimed at improving IYCF at scale through the Alive & Thrive in...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Masum Billah, Purnima Menon, Shams El Arifeen et al.
This report presents the findings of an operations research study conducted to assess the implementation of the Government of Bangladesh’s National Nutrition Services Program (NNS) and to identify the achievements, determine the bottlenecks that adversely impact these achievements, and highlight pot...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Fahmida Tofail, Edward A. Frongillo, K. M. Rasmussen et al.
BACKGROUND: Although household food security (HHFS) has been linked to academic performance in school children, its association with early childhood development has received less attention, particularly in low-income countries. We investigated the association of HHFS with subsequent language develop...
Kuntal Kumar Saha, Edward A. Frongillo, Dewan S Alam, Shams El Arifeen et al.
BACKGROUND: Although the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference has been widely used, in 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) released new standards for assessing growth of infants and children worldwide. OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the growth of breastfed rural Bangladeshi ...