Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices: Standard Operating Procedures for the Handling of Breastmilk Substitutes (BMS) in Refugee Situations for Children 0 - 23 months
Author: UNHCR; ENN
Year: 2015
Resource type: Official
These SOP provide guidance on how staff of UNHCR and UNHCR partners should manage artificial feeding in refugee contexts to protect both breastfed and non-breastfed children. Particular consideration is given to emergency contexts; to high burden, resource poor settings; and to pastoral communities. Emergency context is considered specifically due to the particular vulnerability in overcrowded unstable situations. The issue is however also of concern in protracted refugee situations.
Children under 2 years of age (0 - <24 months) and their mothers/caregivers are the population of concern, especially infants 0 - <6 months. Since pastoral communities comprise a significant proportion of refugees under UNHCR protection, management of milk in infants over 6 months in this population group is considered specifically. The SOP do not cover the handling of therapeutic milks for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition.
These SOP comprise core recommendations and case studies (laid out in this document) and annexes (in a separate document). The case studies were collected from UNHCR country programmes and have informed the scope and content of these SOP.
Available in English and French.
Downloads
UNHCR_BMS-SOP-LAY2-MAINFILE-D-(1).pdf (PDF, 1.1mb)
UNHCR_BMS-SOP-LAY2-ANNEXES-D-(1).pdf (PDF, 1.1mb)
UNHCR_BMS-SOP-FRENCH-MAINFILE-D2-(3).pdf (PDF, 1.2mb)
UNHCR_BMS-SOP-LAY2-ANNEXES-FRENCH-D2-(1).pdf (PDF, 1.1mb)
More like this
Development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for handling breast milk substitutes (BMS) in refugee settings
Donor: UNHCR Collaborators: UNHCR ENN Project leads: Marie McGrath and Chloe Angood Timeframe: January 1st- December 31st 2013 Background In emergency contexts, the risks...
FEX: IYCF-Friendly Framework pilot in Jordan, Bangladesh and Kenya
By Bushra Rashid, Nicki Connell and Caroline Wilkinson Bushra Rashid is working as a Nutrition Advisor in the Humanitarian Surge Team of Save the Children UK. She has been...
en-net: IYCF project UNHCR - Call for expression of Interest
UNHCR has released a call for Expression of Interest for partners on the following topic: Supporting the rollout of the multi-sectoral “IYCF friendly” framework...
en-net: IYCF project UNHCR - Call for expression of Interest
UNHCR has released a call for Expression of Interest for partners on the following topic: Supporting the rollout of the multi-sectoral “IYCF friendly” framework for...
FEX: Management of acute malnutrition in infants less than six months in a South Sudanese refugee population in Ethiopia
By Mary T Murphy, Kassahun Abebe, Sinead O'Mahony, Hatty Barthorp & Chris Andert View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici Sinead O'Mahony is a...
en-net: Should you recommend wet nursing in HIV prevalent areas where replacement feeding is not safe but there is no HIV testing available?
Current WHO guidance on infant feeding and HIV (2010) emphasises a public health approach to infant feeding choice in the HIV context. It emphasises that feeding...
FEX: Challenges in protecting non-breastfed infants in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh
View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici Alice Burrell is a public health nutritionist with five years of experience working in the nutrition...
FEX: New UNHCR Policy on handling Milk Products
The revised edition of the UNHCR Policy Related to the Acceptance, Distribution, and Use of Milk Products in Refugee Settings is now available. The 2006 version replaces the...
FEX: Challenges of IYCF and psychosocial support in Lebanon
By Juliette Seguin Juliette Seguin is currently Health and Nutrition Coordinator for ACF Lebanon. She has been working with ACF since 2011 in Haiti, Guinea, Bangladesh, Turkey...
FEX: Postscript to 'Fresh food vouchers for refugees in Kenya'
By Mary Lung'aho, CARE USA, and Allison Oman, UNHCR During the period 2006 through the present, CARE, UNHCR, GTZ, IRC, NCCK and other partners have worked in an interagency...
FEX: UNHCR experiences of enabling continuity of acute malnutrition care in the East, Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region
View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Naser Mohmand Naser Mohmand is currently working with UNHCR as Senior Regional Nutrition and Food...
en-net: Infant feeding and the European refugee crisis
Dear en-net, We have been alerted to appeals on Facebook pages and elsewhere for baby milks and bottles etc as part of the response to the Refugee crisis in Europe. Can anyone...
en-net: Anthropometric survey target group: 0-59 months vs. 6-59 months and implications
Greetings EN-NET, When I learned to do anthro surveys years ago, I was taught to sample children 6-59 months old. The rationale includes this group being most vulnerable to...
FEX: Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplement Research Network Meeting
By Sarah Style Sarah Style is part of the ENN team working with UNHCR on the Anaemia Control, Prevention and Reduction Project In April 2011, the International Lipid-Based...
FEX: ENN’s perspective on the nutrition response in the Syria crisis
By Carmel Dolan, Marie McGrath and Jeremy Shoham Unless otherwise stated, referenced articles feature in Field Exchange 48. While the ENN's role is first and foremost to...
FEX: Strategy Meeting on Infant Feeding in Emergencies
Summary of international meeting Media/communication Working Group in the foreground and Implementation/Capacity building Working Group in the background On 1st and 2nd...
FEX: UNHCR standardised nutrition survey guidelines and training
By Melody Tondeur and Andrew Seal Melody Tondeur is an ENN Consultant and one of the team members implementing the Anaemia Control, Prevention and Reduction Project, a...
IYCF-E Resources
NEW: Visit the IYCF-E HUB established in May 2021 for a global, comprehensive and interactive repository of essential IYCF-E resources! For a list of key IYCF-E resources and...
en-net: Infant Feeding Qualitative Research consultant needed for UNICEF Somalia
Purpose of Consultancy Optimal breastfeeding behaviours such as exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and continued breastfeeding to 12 months can reduce childhood mortality by...
FEX: Postscript to 'Infant feeding in the South Asia earthquake aftermath'
Maaike's observations concur with many of our experiences around infant feeding in emergencies (IFE) in previous humanitarian interventions. Failure to include breastfeeding...
Reference this page
UNHCR; ENN (2015). Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices: Standard Operating Procedures for the Handling of Breastmilk Substitutes (BMS) in Refugee Situations for Children 0 - 23 months. www.ennonline.net/iycfsopbmsrefugee
(ENN_4920)