Type: Issue Brief

Executive Summary – The First 1,000 Days: Nourishing America’s Future

The problem of poor nutrition is pervasive throughout the U.S. Too many American women and young children suffer from high rates of obesity, food insecurity, unhealthy diets, and low rates of breastfeeding. In order to illuminate the challenge of malnutrition in the United States and galvanize a movement to ensure that every child has a healthy start to life, 1,000 Days – with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation – launched a first-of-its-kind report on the nutritional health of America’s mothers, babies and toddlers.

The Impact of Poor Sanitation on Nutrition

The intersection between nutrition and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) continues to garner attention, however much work remains to be done. SHARE and UNICEF recently released a policy brief that summarizes the evidence the evidence for the impact of poor sanitation on nutritional outcomes and highlights the potential offered by greater integration of WASH within nutrition policy and programs. Key recommendations include:

  • The new Global Goals provide an opportunity for donors, aid agencies, and national governments to foster cross-sectoral collaboration in WASH and nutrition, including knowledge sharing and collaborative programs.
  • The nutritional significance of sanitation can no longer be overlooked. Practitioners from nutrition and WASH should collaborate on tackling the underlying causes of undernutrition and put a greater focus on prevention of undernutrition in addition to treatment.
  • Gaps in evidence on the sanitation-nutrition nexus must be filled with high quality studies in order to spur greater commitment and investment in evidence-based impactful interventions.

Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies

Even the youngest children in the United States are at risk of becoming obese. In response, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed factors related to overweight and obesity from birth to age five and develop this report which recommends actions that healthcare professionals, caregivers, and policymakers can take to prevent obesity in young children.

Nutrition and health in women, children, and adolescent girls

Published alongside the UN Secretary General’s second Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, this policy brief makes the case for strengthened focus on nutrition, with special attention to the first 1,000 days (from a woman’s pregnancy to the child’s second birthday), pregnant and lactating women, women of reproductive age, and adolescent girls. According to the authors, urgent action is needed to tackle malnutrition in all its forms and to help nutrition unlock the potential of investment in the health of women, children and adolescents.

Wasting Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Children who suffer from wasting as a result of severe malnutrition are at risk of serious illness and death. Therefore, urgent action is needed to reach the target by ensuring that severely malnourished children are treated for wasting and that more is done to prevent this life-threatening condition.

Breastfeeding Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Exclusive breastfeeding—defined as the practice of only giving an infant breast-milk for the first 6 months of life (no other food or water) —is a cornerstone of child survival and child health because it provides essential, irreplaceable nutrition for a child’s growth and development. Globally, only 38% of infants are exclusively breastfed and it is estimated that sub-optimal breastfeeding practices contributes to 800,000 deaths of children annually.

Much remains to be done to make exclusive breastfeeding the norm for infant feeding and reach the target to ensure that at least half of the world’s infants are exclusively breastfed in the first six months.

Childhood Overweight Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

There has been a dramatic rise in the numbers of children under 5 years of age who are overweight. Between 2000 and 2013, the number of overweight children worldwide increased from 32 million to 42 million and it is now estimated that the number of children under 5 years of age who are overweight will increase to 70 million.

Low Birth Weight Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Low birth weight continues to be a significant public health problem globally and is associated with a range of both short- and long term consequences. Overall, it is estimated that 15% to 20% of all births worldwide are low birth weight, representing more than 20 million births a year.

The goal is to achieve a 30% reduction in the number of infants born low birth weight by the year 2025. This would translate to a reduction from approximately 20 million to about 14 million infants with low weight at birth.

Anaemia Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Anemia impairs health and well-being in women and increases the risk of poor maternal and infant outcomes. Anemia affects half a billion women of reproductive age worldwide. While the causes of anemia are variable, it is estimated that half of cases are due to iron deficiency. Greater progress is required to reach the global target of a 50% reduction of anemia in women of reproductive age by 2025.

Stunting Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Childhood stunting is one of the most significant impediments to human development, affecting approximately 159 million children under the age of 5 around the world. Stunting, or being too short for one’s age, is a largely irreversible outcome of inadequate nutrition and repeated bouts of infection during the first 1000 days of a child’s life. It is detrimental to the health and development of both individuals and societies and urgent progress is needed to reach the target to reduce by 40% the number of children affected by stunting.