Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Nutritional Support for Children with HIV or

Those Born to HIV Positive Mothers

In this activity, you will:

 Look at the nutritional needs of HIV positive infants and children at risk

Facilitator’s notes:

Children born to HIV positive mothers are more likely to be born with low birth weights compared

to children born to HIV negative mothers. As they grow, they are more likely to experience growth

failure and malnutrition and are at increased risk of death. In addition, factors related to inadequate

care due to the deteriorating health of the mother may worsen the malnutrition. Therefore, children

born to HIV positive mothers need special attention, feeding and support. This group includes infants

and young children, HIV infected children and severely malnourished HIV infected children.

The role of a home visitor is to explain to mothers the importance of knowing their HIV status and

to provide them with information so they can choose the most appropriate feeding option for their

infants. This will help reduce the risk of HIV transmission and death from inappropriate feeding.

Activity 3

Nutrition for children under two years old who are born to HIV positive

mothers:

Infants who are born to HIV positive mothers are at risk of becoming HIV positive

themselves, through breastfeeding from the infected mother. In such cases, it is

recommended that a mother choose one of two options to feed her child:

 Exclusive breastfeeding(with no other foods given, not even water)

 Exclusive replacement feeding(with all

breastfeeding replaced with a food

substitute, such as cow’s milk).

It is important that a mother does not mix

the two feeding options, as this will increase

the risk of HIV transmission.

There are risks and benefits associated with

each of the feeding options, so a mother

will need to be aware of these so that she

can make an informed choice. These have

been outlined in Handout 2.

(^228) Unit 2, Module 3 Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children