The Response and Management on Infant and Young Child Feeding during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Thailand
Keywords:
infant and young child feeding, breastfeeding, Infant formula, COVID-19, emergencyAbstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, infants and young children living in poor income families suffered from food shortage, especially non-breastfed children. The government, civil societies and various organizations have raised funding and projects calling for the donation of breast-milk substitutes (BMS) in order to support the affected infants and young children. This article reviewed documents from literature and news from the Thai media to explore; (1) the situation of infant and young child food shortage in Thailand, (2) the guidelines on infant and young child feeding during COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on breastfeeding and formula feeding, (3) the responses from government, and (4) civil society’s contribution to solve the problem of food shortage. The literature review indicated that breastfeeding was recommended to all infants and children of COVID-19 positive mothers requiring precautious interventions. For non-breastfed children from income deficit families, the donation of BMS was urgently needed, however, the government should plan for long term management on infant and young child feeding support. This article recommended that relevant stakeholders should closely follow the guidelines for breastfeeding among COVID-19 positive mothers, draw the lesson learnt from the phenomena of BMS donation in order to make a better future plan for infant and young child feeding support, and advocate the promotion, support, and protection of breastfeeding practices in Thailand.
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