Maternal nutritional status and milk volume and composition in India: an observational study.

Background: Human milk provides essential nutrition for infants, and its benefits are well established. We lack data on the influence of maternal nutritional status on milk volume and composition in low-middle income countries.

Objective: We aimed to 1) assess lactation performance (human milk volume, macronutrient composition, and infant energy intake) in Indian females and 2) examine the associations between maternal anthropometry (BMI, percentage body fat) and lactation performance.

Portion size and consistency as indicators of complementary food energy intake.

We evaluated whether novel portion size and consistency indicators can identify children with low complementary food energy intake in southern Ethiopia. We conducted 24-h dietary recalls with caregivers of 548 children aged 6-13 months; additionally, caregivers estimated their child's usual portion size using uncooked rice and selected which of five photographs of porridges of varying consistencies most closely matched the food their child usually ate. Complementary food energy and density from the 24-h recall were used as reference values.