Fahmida Hashem :
1000 days- number of the days to save the child’s future & too rich the deadline in MDG’s. In the first 1ooo day’s nutrition are really matters & most crucial. Why focus on the First 1,000 Days? What mum eats while she is pregnant & what we feed our children from birth to age two will determine the future health, brain development & well being forever? It’s a window of opportunity that is too important to miss.
Professor Susan Prescott is a pediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital in WA, who is exploring the first 1000 days theory. A new Lancet series on maternal and childhood nutrition presents a new framework for prevention and treatment that considers underlying factors, not all is lost. The recently released Lancet series on Maternal and child Nutrition (2013) furthers evidence that 10 proven nutrition-specific interventions could reduce child deaths by 900,000 per year in 34 high-burden countries and stunting by a fifth.
In Bangladesh, commitment at the highest levels of government must be urgently followed by implementation of nutrition-sensitive as well as nutrition specific programmes to ensure we achieve our goals. In our 1000 days programme we need to make sure that knowledge is translated into practice.
We need more people at the table – the entrepreneurs, artists, chefs, policy experts. Encourage investments in other critical sectors, particularly maternal health, child survival, social protection, agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene and early childhood development, that deliver meaningful improvements in the nutritional status for women and children; and enshrine the focus on maternal and child nutrition within internal policies, programs and plans.
Public-Private sector partnerships are essential for sustainable solutions to prevent stunting. Public-private partnerships can magnify and accelerate the impact of the various partners, be they governments, companies, scientists, or NGOs.
1000 days of nutrition should become a new development goal on its own as we look beyond 2015. We need for everyone to take ownership; the need to stop apportioning blame as to who should have done or should do what. It is our single most important problem. To truly engage by turning words into actions, to take a leap and partner with those we might never have considered.
Frontline health workers have a vital role to play in ensuring good nutrition in the first 1,000 days. Frontline health workers deliver advice and services to families in their homes and in clinics, serving as counselors, educators and treatment providers.
Meanwhile, the agricultural sector and aquaculture sector has an important role to play in improving the nutrition of 1000 days. The “right to nutrients” should be the focus of nutrition interventions in the first 1000 days.
In Bangladesh as part of the First 1,000 Days movement, we should be host a free cookery demonstration. This free demonstration will focus on recipes that will help new parents and mums-to-be during the first 1,000 days of their child’s life. Where celebrity chef will demonstrate how to cook a diverse range of dishes appropriate to the four key stages over this period – pregnancy, breastfeeding, weaning and toddler.
We should be developing The First 1000 Days Mobile Health App which, deals with the 1,000 days nutrition. The App aims to improve nutrition during the first 1000 days by improving self efficacy. The App will be built upon existing experiences in the field of mHealth. It will collect information and based on that, it will provide customized content, messages, alerts and guidance. The App will be available for the new mothers to help address and resolve any problems that come up in the crucial 1,000 days.
Based on the available evidence, the Government should endorses the First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme as a national programme. The government should welcome the incorporation of the First 1000 Most Critical Days as a key strategy for scaling up nutrition interventions and the development of the National First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme.
Four key tipping point issues for me were highlighted -The need for a diverse range of stakeholders to invest in nutrition especially during the first 1000 days of life; The importance of scaling-up proven; The fact that we have to have out of the box thinking and look at new ways to solve; The recognition that we all have to work in partnership.
In effect, the clock has been “restarted” to mark the 1,000 days nutrition between now and the next big global nutrition moment – the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The first 1000 days offers a unique window of opportunity to influence the next generation. The 1,000-Day of nutrition team should calls upon everyone to join this next 1,000-Day challenge. It’s a time we need more active & visible nutritional leadership to drive change in health sector.
(Fahmida Hashem is a Nutritionist and works at Health & Wellness Center)
