Wadia Intervention

About:

The Project is designed for early identification of malnutrition (acute and chronic) and providing appropriate interventions for children visiting the OPD at the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital. It also incorporates an education component for pregnant women and lactating mothers visiting the hospital.

Location:

Parel

Project initiation:

2014 – Nutrition counselling OPD
2018 – Health screening program for children

Context:

To help identify children with acute malnutrition in need of in-patient treatment, we started implementing a malnutrition screening OPD at Wadia’s children hospital. We’ve set up an assessment booth to assess all the children under the age of 5 years. It includes measuring the height, weight and MUAC of every child visiting the OPD.
The children identified with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) are referred to the NRC for treatment; whereas those with chronic and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) are referred to the FMCH Nutrition OPD – for weekly counselling and follow-ups. They’re referred to the Wadia Dietician for counselling for the rest of the week.
Along with the intervention for children, we worked on a preventative initiative for pregnant and lactating mothers – to help them and their children healthy and well-nourished through the first 1000 days of life.
We conduct education sessions with the families during the pre and post-natal check up OPD at the maternity hospital. The sessions are focused on providing acurate and actionable knowledge on pregnancy, the process of birth, nutrition and breastfeeding.

Objectives of the project:

• Provide counselling to all the families with children who have been identified with acute or chronic malnutrition.
• Provide accurate and actionable knowledge to all the pregnant women who are registered at the OPD for ante-natal check-ups at the hospital.