Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations When COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed

Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling in the context of COVID-19 remains a critical nutrition intervention for the protection and support of pregnant women, caregivers, and their young children. WHO and UNICEF advise caregivers and families with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to continue the recommended IYCF practices with the necessary hygiene precautions. It is therefore vital to ensure that communities and families around the world adopt these recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus and care for those who are infected.

UNICEF and USAID Advancing Nutrition, with the support of the Infant Feeding in Emergencies (IFE) Core Group represented by Save the Children and Safely Fed Canada, have developed a counselling package, Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations when COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed. The set includes 10 Counselling Cards and a Recommended Practices Booklet. These materials (linked below) reflect the global recommendations from WHO and UNICEF (March 2020) on IYCF in the context of COVID-19 and may be periodically updated to reflect new or emerging evidence. The package provides both easy-to-understand recommended practices for counsellors and user-friendly graphics that can be used with low-literacy communities in different contexts.

Go to: PDF Translations/Adaptations

To encourage adaption of these materials to local contexts, we have made these files available free to download. The Recommended Practices Booklet is available below as a Microsoft Word document and images are available in both JPG and PDF formats. If you are interested in adapting the graphics and recommended practices found in the counselling package, the Steps for Adapting Graphics and Recommended Practices from Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations When COVID-19 Is Suspected or Confirmed document provides practical steps.

You can also find many of the images that were adapted for use in this counselling package in the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Image Bank – an open-access collection of over 700 images developed or adapted for the UNICEF Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling Package. Please properly credit any images you adapt.

Access PDF, Word and JPG Files

Illustration of Recommended Practices Booklet

Recommended Practices Booklet (PDF, 1.91 MB)

Recommended Practices Booklet (DOCX, 2.22 MB)

Illustration of Counseling Card Package

Counseling Card Package (High Resolution) (PDF, 18.5 MB)

Counseling Card Package (Low Resolution) (PDF, 1.54 MB)

Illustration of cover card

Cover Card (PDF, 1.24 MB)

Cover Card (JPG, 751.05 KB)

Illustration of Actions needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Actions needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (PDF, 2.23 MB)

Actions needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (JPG, 1.36 MB)

Illustration of Take precautions during delivery and rooming-in

Take precautions during delivery and rooming-in (PDF, 1.41 MB)

Take precautions during delivery and rooming-in (JPG, 1.11 MB)

Illustration of Take precautions when breastfeeding, day and night

Take precautions when breastfeeding, day and night (PDF, 1.1 MB)

Take precautions when breastfeeding, day and night (JPG, 729.51 KB)

Illustration of Wash hands with soap to prevent spread of COVID-19

Wash hands with soap to prevent spread of COVID-19 (PDF, 2.15 MB)

Wash hands with soap to prevent spread of COVID-19 (JPG, 1.04 MB)

Illustration of Wash hands for 20 seconds following these steps

Wash hands for 20 seconds following these steps (PDF, 1.32 MB)

Wash hands for 20 seconds following these steps (JPG, 949.96 KB)

Illustration of Practice food safety and prepare clean water

Practice food safety and prepare clean water (PDF, 2.07 MB)

Practice food safety and prepare clean water (JPG, 1.5 MB)

Illustration of Practice safe complementary feeding

Practice safe complementary feeding (PDF, 1.47 MB)

Practice safe complementary feeding (JPG, 850.73 KB)

Illustration of When to seek advice from the health facility

When to seek advice from the health facility (PDF, 2.13 MB)

When to seek advice from the health facility (JPG, 1.61 MB)

Illustration of How to hand express breast milk and cup feed

How to hand express breast milk and cup feed (PDF, 1.62 MB)

How to hand express breast milk and cup feed (JPG, 858.11 KB)

Illustration of If you give infant formula while recovering from the virus

If you give infant formula while recovering from the virus (PDF, 2.01 MB)

If you give infant formula while recovering from the virus (JPG, 1.01 MB)

Translations and Adaptations

The translations and adaptations included below are the products of multiple colleagues, shared in the spirit of encouraging and facilitating additional regional and country-level adaptations of this IYCF and COVID-19 counseling package. Additional translations and country adaptation will be added as they are developed and shared for inclusion on this page. We would like to offer special thanks to the UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional (WCAR) Office, the UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional (LACR) Office, the UNICEF Mozambique Office, and the UNICEF Syria country office for supporting the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic translations, and to the USAID Advancing Nutrition office in the Kyrgyz Republic for supporting the Russian and Kyrgyz translations. (Please note that the accuracy of these translations have not been verified.)

Access PDF, Word and JPG Files

Translations and Adaptations

Template

French

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Afghanistan (Dari)

Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyz)

Syria (Arabic)

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