Early Childhood Nutrition & Chest/Breastfeeding

Communities across the United States are faced with persistent inequities in breastfeeding duration and nutrition insecurity. Suboptimal breastfeeding and nutrition insecurity can lead to negative short- and long-term health outcomes for infants, toddlers, and birthing parents, such as increased incidence of infection, diabetes, obesity, some cancers, and other chronic diseases. Many families discontinue chest/breastfeeding prematurely due to many reasons that could be solved with continuity of care through the first 1,000 day of life.

Through the Reducing Breastfeeding Disparities through Continuity of Care project, funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, NACCHO aims to improve local approaches to chest/breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support through continuity of care and infant and toddler nutrition security strategies.

NACCHO’s Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support: A Blueprint for Communities, referred to as the “Blueprint”, was developed with a public health lens. This resource provides recommendations to increase local capacity to implement community-driven approaches to support breastfeeding. Throughout the Blueprint, there is a clear focus on centering the needs of populations disproportionately impacted by structural barriers that lead to lower breastfeeding rates.

2023 – 2024: Bridging Breastfeeding Continuity of Care and Nutrition Security within the First 1,000 Days: Blueprint Cohort III

NACCHO awarded nine (9) communities to improve infant and toddler nutrition by strengthening community lactation support and other strategies to advance the local nutrition security landscape within the first 1,000 days. All grantees work with at least two partners to improve nutrition security of infant and toddler. This project started in November 2023 and will end in July 2024.  Click here to read more about each grantee project.

There are currently no funding opportunities available at this time. Please check this webpage in August 2024.


REGISTER FOR OUR UPCOMING WEBINAR

Wednesday, March 20, 2024: “Beyond Baby’s Highchair Improving Infant & Toddler Nutrition Security in Communities of Color”

With funding support from the CDC's Division of Nutrition Physical Activity and Obesity (CDC-DNPAO), NACCHO worked alongside local communities in the United States to implement successful outcome-driven strategies to improve infant and toddler nutrition security. This session will showcase newly released resources for African, Black, Caribbean, and Spanish-speaking families and discuss the current process for the development of resources for communities in Arabic, Kurdish, Pashto, Dari, Indian, and Punjabi-speaking families, which will be completed by July 2024. In addition, speakers will provide an overview of recently published resources by national partners related to the first 1,000 days of nutrition.

The following no-cost Continuing Education (C.E.) credits are pending approval: 1.5 L-CERPS, 1.5 CPEUs

Click here to register for this webinar.

The recording will be uploaded here.

Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies: Community Preparedness Systems to Keep Babies Safe Webinar

The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) cohosted a webinar on the CDC Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E) Toolkit. Participants learned how Jefferson County Public Health partnered with their Medical Reserve Corps unit and community members to integrate pregnant people, families, and infants into Emergency Preparedness Planning.

To view a recording of the webinar and resource guide, click here.

To earn CERPS/CPEUs, click here.

Improving Nutrition Security for Infants and Toddlers in Communities of Color Webinar

During this webinar, the NACCHO provided an overview of the landscape of the first 1,000 days of nutrition in the United States. Webinar attendees also directly heard from culturally diverse nutrition professionals about their projects to diversify the infant and toddler dietary guidelines. To watch the recording of the webinar, click here. To view the Webinar Resource Guide, click here. To earn CERPS/CPEUs, click here.

Every Step of the Way through the First 1,000 Days – Webinar Series

During this 8-part webinar series, NACCHO provided an overview of the different strategies in the Continuity of Care Blueprint. The goal of the webinar series was to increase the knowledge of continuity of care in breastfeeding practices and help improve infant and toddler health. To learn more about each webcast and available CERPs and CPEUs, please view the information below.

Webinar #1: Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support Blueprint Launch

Webinar #2: Improving Community Health through Continuity of Care in Chest/Breastfeeding Support

Webinar #3: Advancing Continuity of Care through Lactation-friendly Environments and Breastfeeding Policies, Systems and Environmental (PSE) Solutions

Webinar #4: Lactation Care with Warm Hand-offs and Referral Accountability

Webinar #5: Building Community Workforce Capacity to Equitably Support Chest/Breastfeeding

Webinar #6: Relating to the Family Unit and their Social Determinants of Health in Chest/Breastfeeding Support

To earn CERPs and CPEUs, please click here.

Webinar #7: Breastfeeding Champions as Community Changemakers

To earn CERPs and CPEUs, please click here.

Webinar #8: Demystifying Infant Feeding Data to Strengthen Continuity of Care (CoC)

To earn CERPs and CPEUs, please click here.

Nutrition Education Resources

    • African, Black, and Caribbean Families
      Please click here to access the  educational handout for African, Black, and Caribbean communities. Please click here to access the social media toolkit for African, Black, and Caribbean communities.

    • Chinese/Vietnamese Families
      Please click here to access the educational handouts in  English,Chinese, and Vietnamese. Please click here to access the social media toolkits in English,Chinese, and Vietnamese. Finally, the nutrition assistance resource directories in  English,Chinese, and Vietnamese are also available on this website.

    • Latine Families
      Please click here to access the educational handout for Spanish-speaking communities in  English and Spanish. Please click here to access the nutrition assistance resource directories, also available in both English andSpanish.

    • Lactation Equity & Inclusive Language Toolkit
      This toolkit will be available soon.

    • Continuity of Care Resource Library
      NACCHO has also created the Continuity of Care Resource Library, an online repository of continuity of care resources that local health departments and other stakeholders can use to implement the Blueprint recommendations in their communities. To view the library, please click  here.

    Blueprint Success Stories

    NACCHO has funded local communities to implement the Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support Blueprint to strengthen community lactation support, services, and other strategies to improve infant and toddler nutrition.

    To view success stories for the 2023 Blueprint Cohort II, click here.

    To view success stories from the 2022 Blueprint Cohort I, click here.


    National Breastfeeding Public Health Partners (BPHP)

    Convened in 2014, the Breastfeeding Public Health Partners (BPHP) is a group of national organizations that collaborate in the public health field to improve the health and overall well-being of infants, children, and families. This work happens through individual and collective efforts to establish and support infant feeding practices that align with public health imperatives and address disparities across racial and demographic indicators. The active partnership meets bi-monthly, to share organizational updates, leverage efforts, and strategize collaboration to tackle structural issues that lead to inequities in breastfeeding rates within maternity care practices and in state/community continuity of care, and within the inequitable access to lactation support and accommodation services. 

    Upcoming Resource: BPHP developed the Lactation Equity & Inclusive Language Toolkit, soon to be launched via webinar.

    MyPlate Strategic Partners

    NACCHO has been actively involved in MyPlate National Strategic Partners, a group that supports the CDC and USDA in promoting Chapter 2 of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is dedicated to infants and toddlers. In alignment with the recommendations from Chapter 2, NACCHO has co-created culturally diverse nutrition materials for infants and toddlers with input from communities. Materials are developed for communities that identify as Chinese, Vietnamese, Latine, African, Black, and Caribbean. These materials include educational handouts, social media toolkits, and resource directories.

    National Collaborative of Infants & Toddlers (NCIT)

    NACCHO is an active member of the NCIT, a collaborative that is committed to ensuring that every child, from prenatal stages to the age of 3 years-old, and their families, have what they need to thrive. You can learn more about NCIT here.

    United States Breastfeeding Committee (U.S. Breastfeeding Committee)

    The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is a national coalition of 140 organizational members representing nonprofits (national, state, local, and community), breastfeeding coalitions, and federal agencies working to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and human milk feeding. As a backbone institution, the USBC uses an equity-centered collective impact approach to manage multi-sectoral collaborations.

    USBC is an active member of the National Breastfeeding Public Health Partners.

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    The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) is committed to elevating information-sharing pathways at the national level to inform and support NACCHO’s membership networks in local communities. The Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Newsletter supports these efforts by sharing similar content from Breastfeeding in the Community, such as successes, funding opportunities, resources, trainings, webinars, and national observances. The newsletter also includes opportunities to connect with the MCAH Team at conferences and summits to continue engaging local health departments (LHDs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) throughout the year.

    To subscribe, please log in to your My NACCHO account. If you do not have a “My NACCHO” account, please email [email protected].

    • Once logged on click on “My Subscriptions” in the left navigation menu
    • Check the box for “Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Newsletter”
    • Click “Save” at the bottom of the page

    If you have any further questions, please email [email protected].

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