Introduction of Solid, Semi-Solid or Soft Foods

At the age of 6 months, breastmilk is no longer sufficient to meet babies' nutritional needs and if complementary feeding is not introduced on time, they are at risk of undernutrition. This indicator therefore assesses whether children start complementary feeding at the appropriate age.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of caretakers responsible for feeding children aged 6-8.99 months: 

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: Did [baby's name] eat any solid, semi-solid, or soft foods yesterday during the day or at night?

A1: yes / no / does not know

(if the previous answer is YES; verify it by asking the following question)

Q2: What kind of solid, semi-solid, or soft foods did [baby's name] eat?

A2: (to be concluded by the interviewer)

1) yes, solid, semi-solid, or soft foods were eaten 

2) no, solid, semi-solid, or soft foods were not eaten 

Calculate the indicator's value by dividing the number of children aged 6-8.99 months who ate any solid, semi-solid or soft foods during the previous day or night by the total number of children aged 6-8.99 months (excluding those where "does not know" answer was provided) and multiplying the result by 100.

Disaggregate the data by sex.

1) This indicator relies on accurate age assessment. Since people often do not remember the exact dates of their children’s birth, the data collectors should always verify the child’s age. This can be done by reviewing the child’s birth certificate, vaccination card or another document; however, since many caregivers do not have such documents (and since they can include mistakes), it is essential that your data collectors are able to verify the child’s age by using local events calendars. Read FAO’s Guidelines (see below) to learn how to prepare local events calendars and how to train data collectors in their correct use.

2) Most likely, the sampling of your survey will be representative for "households with children aged 0 - 24/ 59 months", not for "6-8 months", resulting in lower representativeness of data for this indicator (as only small part of your sample will be children aged 6-8 months). Unless you have a separate (representative) sample for this age group, the best thing you can do is to ensure that your survey uses a larger sample of respondents (e.g. by using 95% confidence level and 4% margin of error).