Nutrition and nurturing during the first years of life are both crucial for life-long health and well-being. In infancy, no gift is more precious than breastfeeding; yet barely one in three infants is exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life.

In under-resourced settings, where sanitation and safe water are often lacking, breastfeeding can be life-saving. Breastfeeding protects against infectious diseases, especially gastrointestinal infections, which largely contribute to child morbidity and mortality in developing countries (1)....

Decisions on infrastructure development that may be critical to people's health status are, however, made without proper consultation of health authorities and experts. When negative health impacts occur, they represent a hidden cost of the project that is transferred to the health sector...

Undernutrition is associated with more than one third of the global disease burden for children under five. Infant and young child feeding is a key area to improve child survival and promote healthy growth and development. The first two years of a child’s life are particularly important,...