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Background Every year, nearly one million deaths occur due to suboptimal breastfeeding. If universally practiced, exclusive breastfeeding alone prevents 11.6% of all under 5 deaths. Among strategies to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates, counselling by peers or health workers, has proven to be highly successful. With growing availability of cell phones in India, they are fast becoming a medium to spread information for promoting healthcare among pregnant women and their families. This study was conducted to assess effectiveness of cell phones for personalized lactation consultation to improve breastfeeding practices. Methods This was a two arm, pilot study in four urban maternity hospitals, retrained in Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. The enrolled mother-infant pairs resided in slums and received healthcare services at the study sites. The control received routine healthcare services, whereas, the intervention received weekly cell phone counselling and daily text messages, in addition to counselling the routine healthcare services. Results 1036 pregnant women were enrolled (518 - intervention and 518 - control). Rates of timely initiation of breastfeeding were significantly higher in intervention as compared to control (37% v/s 24%, p

Background Half of the world's population uses solid fuels for energy and cooking, resulting in 1.5 million deaths annually, approximately one-third of which occur in India. Most deaths are linked to childhood pneumonia or acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI), conditions that are difficult to diagnose. The overall effect of biomass combustion on childhood illness is unclear. Objectives To evaluate whether type of household fuel is associated with symptoms of ALRI (cough and difficulty breathing), diarrhea or fever in children aged 0-36 months. Methods We analyzed nationally representative samples of households with children aged 0-36 months from three national family health surveys conducted between 1992 and 2006 in India. Households were categorized as using low (liquid petroleum gas/electricity), medium (coal/kerosene) or high polluting fuel (predominantly wood/agricultural waste). Odds ratios adjusted for confounders for exposure to high and medium polluting fuel were compared with low polluting fuel (LPF). Results Use of high polluting fuel (HPF) in India changed minimally (82 to 78 %), although LPF use increased from 8% to 18%. HPF was consistently associated with ALRI [adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.48 (1.08-2.03) in 1992-3; 1.54 (1.33-1.77) in 1998-9; and 1.53 (1.21-1.93) in 2005-6). Fever was associated with HPF in the first two surveys but not in the third survey. Diarrhea was not consistently associated with HPF. Conclusions There is an urgent need to increase the use of LPF or equivalent clean household fuel to reduce the burden of childhood illness associated with IAP in India.

In India, poor feeding practices in early childhood contribute to the burden of malnutrition as well as infant and child mortality. This paper aims to use the newly developed World Health Organization (WHO) infant feeding indicators to determine the prevalence of complementary feeding indicators among children of 6-23 months of age and to identify the determinants of inappropriate complementary feeding practices in India. The study data on 15,028 last-born children aged 6-23 months was obtained from the National Family Health Survey 2005-2006. Inappropriate complementary feeding indicators were examined against a set of child, parental, household, health service and community level characteristics. The prevalence of timely introduction of complementary feeding among infants aged 6-8 months was 55%. Among children aged 6-23 months, minimum dietary diversity rate was 15.2%, minimum meal frequency 41.5% and minimum acceptable diet 9.2%. Children in northern and western geographical regions of India had higher odds for inappropriate complementary feeding indicators than in other geographical regions. Richest households were less likely to delay introduction of complementary foods than other households. Other determinants of not meeting minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet were: no maternal education, lower maternal Body Mass Index (BMI) (