Household food distribution patterns and the effects on the nutritional status of infants and young children

When families are facing food insecurity, it has been observed that children under the age of five are typically affected the most since their households have little to no resources. In food insecurity households, caregivers are forced to choose between their wellbeing and their children's wellbeing; in many cases parents are only able to save some of their children. To prevent caregivers from having to make these hard decisions on food distribution, aid agencies distribute aid to the most vulnerable; however, the notion of the "most vulnerable" varies from culture to culture and aid expert to aid expert. Furthermore, how a household distributes food to their family frequently contradicts how aid experts expect food aid to be distributed within a household. Using several food aid distribution case studies and 2010 Tanzanian children health and household data from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS), cultural variation in the pattern of resources distribution and its effects on children's health between 0 to 60 months will be analyzed.