How mothers of newborn are learning to tackle malnutrition in Mumbai slum

How mothers of newborn are learning to tackle malnutrition in Mumbai slum Using a model based on the World Health Organization’s Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) principles, SNEHA tackles gaps in nutrition

Current Affairs : “I think I perhaps knew how to hold a baby and play with one before I had my own, but not really anything else. I didn’t know what to expect when I got pregnant.

Growing up, talking about diet and the best types of food isn’t really anything I remember,” recounted Sumita Anil Dhumale, 23, a mother of two.

Like many mothers with little education, who marry young and move far from home, Sumita had to fend for herself in an unfamiliar city with her first child, taking advice from her mother-in-law on feeding and hygiene practices.

When it came to her second child, however, a local anganwadi (government-run child care centre) worker made sure she delivered at government-run Sion Hospital in central Mumbai and that the baby was taken in regularly for weighing and check-up sessions to monitor his development.

“I’ve learnt now to not make the same mistakes I used to,” Sumita told IndiaSpend on a recent August morning.

“Earlier, I used to mix gripe water [a solution known to contain alcohol and other non-natural ingredients] in his milk to keep him quiet while I went to work. When I started visiting the anganwadi, I learnt this could damage the brain and affect his growth so I’ve stopped…Read more