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First 1000 Days Of Life A ‘Window Of Opportunity’
A focused, targeted approach needed to reach pregnant women and infants, who are at ‘high risk’ of undernutrition.
An undernourished mother is likely to give birth to an undernourished child, resulting in a poor start in life and setting up a life cycle of child undernutrition. Households with pregnant women and children under 24 months of age are at ‘high risk’ of undernutrition. For public health services to catch them right from conception, and regularly follow the mothers/caregivers intensively in the first 1000 days of life for nutritional interventions, is crucial to establish early patterns of positive behavioral change for prevention of maternal and child undernutrition, say India’s nutrition experts.