Consultants, Maternal Nutrition and Complementary Feeding at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in over 20 countries around the world. Recognized for our commitment to accountability, innovation and collaboration, our work takes us into the heart of communities, where we help children and families help themselves.

We work with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a variety of local partners while maintaining our own independence without political agenda or religious orientation. Save the Children’s mission is to Inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Maternal Nutrition and Complementary Feeding Food Demonstration Video Development - Consultancy

Location: Abuja

Role Purpose

• Instructional videos will be used at the local government and ward levels to build the skills and confidence of Mothers of Children U2, Pregnant and lactating mothers and community members in general to adopt responsive and adequate feeding practices that are moderately complex. The videos would be motivational as well as instructional, demonstrating the hard skills needed to perform these tasks while employing the expected role to encourage the new practices and behaviours. It is also envisioned that video viewings would be combined with the already existing intervention’s such as Facility level IYCF during ANC at PHCs, CIYCF support Group meetings/Care Group meetings and CMAM.
• For example, to enhance their effectiveness, the videos would be shown in household or social gatherings - for example, community meetings and events, health centers - where facilitated discussions will be interspersed throughout the viewings. Where appropriate or feasible, these discussions would be followed by a practicum, where participants can try out their newly learned skills. 

Video Length
The duration of the instructional videos (each recipe) will be between 3-5 minutes in length.  In total there will be:

• 9 Recipes for PLW
• 6 Complimentary feeding Recipes

Objectives: 

• Enhanced knowledge and skills for appropriate feeding of children 6-23 months and Pregnant and Lactating women (PLW)
• Apply principles of psychosocial care when feeding children 6-23 months
• Motivated and confident in the ability to feed children

Audience:

• The primary audience is pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age and their families within hill regions of Nepal. Audiences are mostly low-literate (or illiterate) in low-resource settings, mostly DAG. Secondary audiences include female community health volunteers, health workers, and other community nutrition stakeholders.
• Key Promise: Being active and especially attentive when feeding a baby, such as talking to the child or playing with him or her, to help the baby eat more and grow healthy, smart and strong.

Creative Considerations:

• It will be important to demonstrate breastfeeding, positioning and attachment with a real mother and baby.
• Please do not use pictures
• It is important that the instructional videos incorporate the IYCF BCC Video lead female character (protagonist) into this production.
• The instructional videos should employ dramatizations - using actors to act out and to convey key nutrition messages, along with the easy-to-follow step-by-step cooking instructions.
• Role models will convey their experiences of benefiting from the new practices - and overcoming familiar obstacles to do so. This approach will aim to enhance the viewers’ beliefs about their own capabilities (“If they can do it, so can I”), and motivate them to perform the tasks.

Below are a couple of examples:

• Dramatization of a community member (or several community members) who tell “real-life” success stories about overcoming barriers and enablers to adopting a new practice, and how that has improved her family’s well-being, followed by an illustration of the tips. This dramatization can illustrate how family support helps overcome barriers - for example, showing how mothers-in-law or husbands relieve the mother of other household chores while pregnant or breastfeeding.

Key Barriers:

• Mothers and family members do not want to spend too long feeding their child because they have a lot of work to do.
• Mother or the care taker stuffs the food in the baby’s mouth to get it done as quickly as possible.
• Many people do not understand the importance of psychosocial care (comforting and entertaining) a child while feeding.

Steps or Tips:

• Maintenance of Breastfeeding. Continue frequent, on-demand breastfeeding until 2 years of age and beyond
• Responsive feeding for a child  Responsive feeding means being active and especially attentive when feeding a baby, such as talking to the child or playing with him or her, to help the baby eat more and grow healthy, smart and strong.
• It is fun to feed and interact with children. If a child is fed actively, it learns to talk, develops interest in eating and timely growth takes place. We have to make meal time fun for child and for ourselves, make the time so no need to rush.
• In responsive feeding, principals are psychosocial care are practiced. Specifically:
• Feed infants directly and assist older children when they feed themselves, being sensitive to their hunger and satiety cues;
• Feed infants by understanding the signs of hunger, such as crying or reaching for the breast.
• Feed slowly and patiently, and encourage children to eat, but do not force them; remember that feeding times are periods of learning and love - talk to children during feeding, with eye to eye contact, talk or sing to them while they are feeding and smile at them.
• Minimize distractions during meals. Eating at the same time and in the same place also improves appetites and avoids distractions.
• Feed children in their own bowl
• Give children liquids with a little spoon out of a clean cup.
• While feeding your child, ask him/her if wants more food. If he/she signals for more, provide more. If he/she signals that he/she is full stop feeding. h.) The complementary foods should include diverse food, such as eggs, fish or meat, leafy greens and orange-flesh fruits and vegetables. It is to increase the child body’s access to vitamins and immune power and will make the child grow smarter and stronger.
• If children refuse many foods, experiment with different food combinations, tastes, textures. Children may reject food the first time it is introduced, but continue to try. Getting a child to accept new food may take several attempts.

If the Infant Refuses new Foods: 

• Talk to the infant calmly encouraging the infant to eat.
• Try singing or making up songs to encourage eating.
• Feed slowly and patiently.
• Add breast milk to the cooked food. It helps the infant to adjust to the new food. It smells and tastes familiar.
• Don’t force an infant to eat. The food may get into their lungs if they begin to cry and breathe in the food. Food in the lungs could cause death.
• If you find foods that the infant does like, continue to give them the foods they do like encouraging them to eat.

Amount of Complementary Food Needed:

• Start at 6 months of age with small amounts of food and increase the amount of food day by day and feed around one tea-glass amount at one time as the child gets older. Feed three times a day. Continue this for up to 9 months. The food should be thick, so it sticks to the spoon. In the beginning, in addition to continued breastfeeding, start to feed the child with bigger spoon (2 to 3 spoons). Repeat this process 3 times a day.
• For child that is 9-12 months continue to feed three times a day of thick food about one tea glass each time. Also, feed him/her some snacks in-between at least once. Foods available at the household like banana or eggs can be fed.
• After the child reaches 12 months, increase the frequency of providing snacks to two and each time he/she should be fed the amount equivalent to two tea glass three times a day of thick food.

Safe Preparation and Storage of Complementary Foods:  Practice good hygiene and proper food handling by

• Washing caregivers’ and children’s hands before food preparation and eating,
• Storing foods safely and serving foods immediately after preparation,
• Using clean utensils to prepare and serve food, using clean cups and bowls when feeding children,
• Avoiding the use of feeding bottles, which are difficult to keep clean.

Food Consistency:

• Gradually increase food consistency and variety as the infant gets older, adapting to the infant’s requirements and abilities.
• Infants can eat pureed, mashed and semi-solid foods beginning at six months. By 8 months most infants can also eat "finger foods" (snacks that can be eaten by children alone).
• By 12 months, most children can eat the same types of foods as consumed by the rest of the family (keeping in mind the need for nutrient-dense foods). Avoid foods that may cause choking (i.e., items that have a shape and/or consistency that may cause them to become lodged in the trachea, such as nuts, grapes, raw carrots).

Nutrient Content of Complementary Foods:

• Feed a variety of foods to ensure that nutrient needs are met. Meat, poultry, fish or eggs should be eaten daily, or as often as possible.
• Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables should be eaten daily. Provide diets with adequate fat content. Avoid giving drinks with low nutrient value, such as tea, coffee and sugary drinks such as soda. Limit the amount of juice offered so as to avoid displacing more nutrient-rich foods.

Creative Considerations It will be important to demonstrate breastfeeding, positioning and attachment with a real mother and baby.  Please do not use pictures.