Growth and Cognitive Development in Tanzanian Children are Associated with Timing of Birth in Relation to Seasonal Malnutrition.

Objective: To evaluate in a rural Tanzanian birth cohort the association between birth timing in relation to the preharvest lean season and early-life growth and cognitive development.

Study Design: Children were enrolled within 14 days of birth and followed up for 18 months. Child anthropometry was measured every 3 months.

Early-Life Enteric Pathogen Exposure, Socioeconomic Status, and School-Age Cognitive Outcomes.

Early-life experiences of enteric infections and diarrheal illness are common in low-resource settings and are hypothesized to affect child development. However, longer-term associations of enteric infections with school-age cognitive outcomes are difficult to estimate due to lack of long-term studies. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between enteropathogen exposure in the first 2 years of life with school-age cognitive skills in a cohort of children followed from birth until 6 to 8 years in low-resource settings in Brazil, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Impact of Shigella infections and inflammation early in life on child growth and school-aged cognitive outcomes: Findings from three birth cohorts over eight years.

Background: Shigella infections cause inflammation, which has been hypothesized to mediate the associations between Shigella and child development outcomes among children in low-resource settings. We aimed to assess whether early life inflammation and Shigella infections affect school-aged growth and cognitive outcomes from 6-8 years of age.

Methodology/principal Findings: We conducted follow-up assessments of anthropometry, reasoning skills, and verbal fluency in 451 children at 6-8 years of age in the Brazil, Tanzania, and South Africa sites of MAL-ED, a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Cognitive Outcomes at 18 Months: Findings from the Early Life Interventions for Childhood Growth and Development in Tanzania (ELICIT) Trial.

Micronutrient deficiencies and enteric infections negatively impact child growth and development. We enrolled children shortly after birth in a randomized, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial interventional trial in Haydom, Tanzania, to assess nicotinamide and/or antimicrobials (azithromycin and nitazoxanide) effect on length at 18 months of age. Cognitive score at 18 months using the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT), which includes gross motor, fine motor, language, and social assessments, was a secondary outcome.

Higher Energy and Zinc Intakes from Complementary Feeding Are Associated with Decreased Risk of Undernutrition in Children from South America, Africa, and Asia.

Background: Few studies have focused on quantitatively analyzing nutrients from infant diets, compromising complementary feeding evaluation and health promotion worldwide.

Objectives: This study aimed to describe dietary intake in infants from 9 to 24 mo of age, determining nutrient intakes associated with the risk of underweight, wasting, and stunting.

Methods: Usual nutrient intakes from complementary feeding were determined by 24-h recalls collected when infants were 9-24 mo of age in communities from 7 low- and middle-income countries: Brazil (n = 169), Peru (n = 199), South Africa (n = 221), Tanzania (n = 210), Bangladesh (n = 208), India (n = 227), and Nepal (n = 229), totaling 1463 children and 22,282 food recalls.