Assessing the Nurturing Care Content of UNICEF's Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling Package: Gaps, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned

BACKGROUND: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling Package (C-IYCF CP) is used globally for infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counseling. With the C-IYCF CP last updated 8 y ago, mapping existing nurturing care content, identifying gaps, and documenting current country-level changes offers a unique opportunity to guide recommendations to strengthen the nurturing care content of this package. OBJECTIVES: The primary study aims were to: 1) identify and map existing nurturing care content within UNICEF's C-IYCF CP, 2) identify gaps related to nurturing care or feeding elements within the C-IYCF CP, 3) identify country-level nurturing care adaptations to the C-IYCF CP, and 4) identify best practices and lessons learned from country adaptations that can be recommended for inclusion in the C-IYCF CP. METHODS: The assessment included 4 phases: 1) conduct an iterative process to identify and map nurturing care elements within the C-IYCF CP using a codebook explicitly developed for this assessment; 2) identify gaps in the C-IYCF CP; 3) apply the codebook to IYCF packages from 11 countries, revise, then finalize the codebook; and 4) identify and interview key informants from 4 countries whose IYCF packages had the most comprehensive nurturing care content plus 1 country where health care professionals make routine mother–child home visits. RESULTS: The C-IYCF CP contained limited nurturing care content, especially around safety/security and early learning. All 5 countries interviewed had systematically identified and included priority nurturing care content in each package, yet content level varied. Two countries were also incorporating information technology into the training and delivery of the C-IYCF CP. CONCLUSIONS: Existing country-level best practices can address nurturing care elements missing from UNICEF's C-IYCF CP. Sharing these practices can allow countries to make context-driven, evidence-informed decisions on the nurturing care content to prioritize.