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"Commercial" Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) are used in acute malnutrition management, but they are not always appropriate being expensive and unfamiliar. Much research has tried to develop alternative RUTF formulations and this work systematically reviewed eight articles discussing the approaches used to assess the children's sensory satisfaction, families' acceptance, and the cultural appropriateness of 13 alternative RUTFs. Different approaches were used by the authors and much research to standardise methodologies and findings is urgent to ensure that food products are culturally appropriate, acceptable and appreciated, with the final aim of completing the development process of alternative RUTFs. This work proposed some indications to follow in alternative RUTF acceptability evaluation processing. Moreover, community engagement and education resulted key aspects in alternative RUTF acceptance. An innovative, multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach could develop alternative "fit-for-the-purpose" RUTFs to help food-insecure communities acquire sufficient, safe, nutritious food in long-term Community Management of Acute Malnutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a debiased Machine Learning technique to explore causes behind infant malnutrition for households below-poverty-line in India and examine effectiveness of various government interventions along with other factors. Our analysis reveals that access to clean water is one of the most crucial issues to focus on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical roots of the prevailing hypothesis about the main causes of high infant mortality in Europe in the last four centuries are presented in detail focusing on German sources and publications. Assumptions about infections being the main cause of deaths during infancy clearly need to be reevaluated. The terminology of early sources has passed many steps of translation and interpretation. In the old church registers, wording in the local vernacular merely described the most visible symptoms before the final stages of diseases. Scientific medicine and its terminology repeatedly went astray before real pediatric competence was acquired in the nutritional physiology of infants. The combination of different kinds of evidence points to serious flaws in the prevailing hypothesis, while source data and publications confirm a different conclusion: inadequate nutrition due to early weaning and unsuitable substitute food caused the specific set of symptoms described in the historical sources. Medical evidence about infant malnutrition in developing countries supports this new interpretation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Infants exposed to maternal HIV infection who remain HIV-uninfected (HIV-exposed/uninfected; HIV-EU) may be at increased risk of growth retardation, which could be due both to directly HIV-related effects and to socio-economic factors overrepresented among HIV-positive women. Objective: To investigate growth development at 9–12 months of age in HIV-EU infants participating in prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) care compared to HIV unexposed (HIV-U) infants in relation to socio-economic conditions. Methods: Anthropometric and socio-economic data were collected retrospectively from PMTCT registers (for HIV-EU infants), with HIV-U controls recruited at measles vaccination at public health facilities in Ethiopia. Growth was compared with regard to HIV exposure and socio-economic variables in multivariate regression analysis. Results: The following growth measurements were found for 302 HIV-EU and 358 HIV-U infants at 9–12 months of age, respectively: mean weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) 0.04 and −0.21,p < 0.001 (proportion underweight 5.7% and 6.7%,p = 0.60); median length-for-age z-score (LAZ) −0.92 and −0.91,p = 0.53 (proportion stunted 25.1% and 20.5%,p = 0.17). In multivariate analysis, lower WAZ was associated with male sex (p = 0.021), lower maternal education (p < 0.001), presence of siblings (p < 0.01) and HIV-U (p < 0.01). Underweight was associated with male sex (p = 0.017) and absence of maternal education (p = 0.019). Lower LAZ was associated with male sex (p < 0.001), presence of siblings (p < 0.001) and poor maternal education (p < 0.01), while stunting was associated with male sex (p < 0.001), presence of siblings (p < 0.001), few rooms in the home (p < 0.01), access to running water (p = 0.026) and low level of maternal education (p = 0.014). Conclusions: At 9–12 months of age, HIV-EU infants had non-inferior growth and higher mean WAZ than HIV-U controls. Poor growth development was associated with socio-economic factors. This suggests health benefits from PMTCT participation for infant growth. Similar interventions could be considered for Ethiopian infants, irrespective of HIV exposure, with a particular focus on children with poor socio-economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]