Educational models of infant and young child feeding among prenatal and postnatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020-January 2023): A scoping review

Infant and young children feeding (IYCF) practices, particularly for infants and young children <2 y old, became increasingly challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several studies have discussed various edu-cational models in the pre-pandemic period, most of which were conducted in person. The last reviews on IYCF interventions were conducted in 2020 and were relevant to pre-pandemic contexts. Thus, there is a need to review IYCF interventions to inform educational models adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to describe the IYCF educational models proposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this rele-vant literature, we searched PubMed, SCOPUS, EBSCO, ProQuest, Sage Journals, and Wiley Online Library. Thirty-five literature sources were screened, and 7 data sources were included for data extraction and analy-sis. Many studies on the IYCF educational models focused on exclusive breastfeeding and early initiation of breastfeeding; there was only one study on complementary feeding, and no research was found on continued breastfeeding. Four studies found no significant differences in the intervention given. Three studies had a sig-nificant effect, one had in-person meetings, and two consisted of WhatsApp discussions. Most IYCF educa-tional models from the pandemic context comprised online education, whereas WhatsApp was the most popular media used. Future researchers may develop these findings to design research on a larger scale and for a longer period, especially on complementary feeding and continued breastfeeding based on IYCF indicators.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.