Continued Breastfeeding at 1 Year

Breastfeeding should be continued up to (or beyond) two years. This indicator assesses the progress towards this recommended practice (by measuring the proportion of children breastfed approximately in the middle of the recommended period of two or more years).

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with mothers of (a representative sample of) children aged 12-15.99 months:

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

Q1: Can you please tell me the age of your youngest children?

A1: 

1) the youngest child: .... (specify in months)

2) 2^nd youngest child: .... (specify in months; cross the answer if the respondent has one child only)

(ask the next question only about a child aged 12-15.99 months, if available)

Q2: Yesterday, did you breastfeed this girl/ boy during the day or night?

A2: yes / no

Calculate the indicator's value by dividing the number of children aged 12-15.99 months who were breastfed during the previous day or night by the total number of children aged 12-15.99 months and multiplying the result by 100. 

Disaggregate the data by gender.

1) Continued breastfeeding can be measured also at 2 years in children aged 20-23.99 months. 

2) 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.

3) Most likely, your survey's sample size will be calculated for "households with children aged 0 - 24/ 59 months", not for 12-15 months, resulting in a lower representativeness of data for this indicator (as only part of your sample will be children aged 12-15 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).