Project RAS/6/073 with technical support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been approved by 9 participating countries, including Vietnam. The National Institute of Nutrition is the agency directly implementing this project in Vietnam.

The project’s title is “Using isotopic techniques to monitor the status and interventions to improve infant and young child nutrition”, and the first activity is “Assessing breast milk intake in 3-6 month old children using stable isotope techniques”. This activity was implemented in the form of a scientific research topic.

With the budget from the Target Program for Prevention of Child Malnutrition, with the consent of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the approval of the Ethics Council of the National Institute of Nutrition, the project was started in June 2015 in 5 communes of Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province. The research design is longitudinal monitoring (Follow up). The subjects are mother-child pairs from 3 to 6 months old, meeting the sampling criteria (mother's age from 18-35, full-term baby, birth weight > 2500g, baby is not malnourished, and the mother agrees to participate in the study). There are 2 groups participating: the research group includes 50 mother-child pairs who are exclusively breastfeeding, the control group includes 50 mother-child pairs who have given their babies complementary foods.

After screening, mother-child pairs that met the selection criteria were invited to participate in the study. In the study group, mothers were given stable isotope water on the first day of participation in the study (day 0). Then, saliva samples from both mothers and children were collected on the next 6 days (days 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14). Also at this 2-week study period, mothers were interviewed about their breastfeeding status using a pre-designed questionnaire (according to the World Health Organization guidelines). Then, saliva samples were analyzed using stable isotope techniques to estimate the amount of breast milk the child had consumed, and to assess whether the child was exclusively breastfed. For mother-child pairs in the control group, saliva samples were also collected and the child's complementary food intake was also assessed using isotope techniques.

The results of the assessment of breast milk intake using the stable isotope technique will be compared with the results obtained by interviewing mothers, with the aim of revising  the Breastfeeding Assessment Questionnaire  for future application, contributing to the effective and accurate assessment of the current status of exclusive breastfeeding among Vietnamese mothers.

Currently, the project has completed the field data collection and is preparing to process and analyze saliva samples using stable isotope techniques according to the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The final data will be integrated with other countries to have a general report of the entire project and the research results will be published in the International Scientific Journal.