Viet Nam SDGCW Survey

2020-2021
Infant and Young Child Feeding
Infant and Young Child Feeding

StartBreastfeeding Breastfeed Provide nutritionally adequate, age appropriate and safely prepared complementary
within one hour exclusively for the foods starting at 6 months; and continue breastfeeding until age 2 or longer
of birth first 6 months oflife

<1 hour 0-5 months 6-8 months 6-23 months 6-23months 6-23 months 12-15 months 20-23 months
Early initiation Exclusive Introduction of solid, Minimum meal Minimumdiet Minimum Continued breastfeeding Continued breastfeeding
of breastfeeding breastfeeding semi-solid or soft food frequency diversity acceptable diet at 1 year at 2 years
100
86
78
80
67
60 55
45 45
Percent

40
24 23
20

0
Early Initiation of Exclusive Introduction of solid, Minimum Minimum Minimum Continued Continued
breastfeeding breastfeeding semi-solid or soft foods meal frequency diet diversity acceptable diet breastfeeding at 1 year breastfeeding at 2 years

Early initiation: percentage of newborns put to breast within one hour of birth; Exclusive breastfeeding: percentage of infants aged 0-5months receiving only breastmilk; Introduction
of solids: percentage of infants aged 6-8 months receiving solid or semi-solid food; Minimum diet diversity: percentage of children aged 6-23 months receiving five of the eight
recommended food groups; Minimum meal frequency: percentage of children aged 6-23 months receiving the recommended minimum number of solid/liquid feeds as per the age of
child; Minimum acceptable diet: percentage of children aged 6-23 months receiving the minimum diversity of foods and minimum number of feeds; Continued breastfeeding at 1
year: percentage of children aged 12-15 months who continue to receive breastmilk; Continued breastfeeding at 2 years: percentage of children aged 20-23 months who continue to
receive breastmilk.

Key Messages
• In Viet Nam, fewer than one in every
four infants is breastfed within one
hour of birth. The proportion of
infants breastfed within one day of
birth is much higher, at 72.5 percent. • The percentage of children who have
Less than half of children aged
younger than six months (45.4
percent) are exclusively breastfed.
• Less than 50 percent of children age
6 to 23 months have minimum
acceptable diet in both food diversity
(at least five of eight food groups)
and meal frequency (at least two to
three meals per day for breastfed
children and at least four meals per
day for non-breastfed children).
the minimum acceptable diet
correlates positively with household
wealth and mother’s education.
Children whose mother has higher
education and who are from better-
off families are more likely to have
sufficient diet in terms of both
quantity and quality.
• The proportion of children age 6 to
23 months having the minimum
acceptable diet is quite different
between urban (50.4 percent) and
rural areas (43.2 percent), between
the youngest group, age 6-8 months,
(31.6 percent) and the oldest group,
age 18-23 months (51.8 percent),
and between the Kinh/Hoa (48.5
percent) and the Mong ethnic group
(7.1 percent).
Infant and Young Child Feeding: Equity

Early Initiation of Breastfeeding Minimum Diet Diversity

National
100 National 100
University/
80 80 college or
Richest, 68
Urban, 62 higher, 65
Male, 58
60 60
55.2

Percent
Percent

40 Home, 31 Normal, 31 Rural, 52 Female, 52

Urban, 25 40
23.5 Poorest, 37
20
Rural, 23 Facility, 23 20 No
C-section, education, 25
0 10
0
Area Place of Type of
delivery delivery Area Wealth Mother's Sex
quintile education of child
Percent of newborns put to the breast within one hour of Percent of children age 6-23 months receiving food from at
birth, by background characteristics least five out of eight food groups, by background
characteristics
Infant and Young Child Feeding: What are the Youngest
Infants Fed? Data by region and city

Liquids or foods consumed by infants

Early Initiation of Minimum Diet
0-5 months old Region
100 breastfeeding Diversity
National 23.5 55.2
90
Red River Delta 21.3 61.8
80 Ha Noi 14.4 76.1
No breastmilk4
Northern Midlands and
70 28.0 41.9
Percent of infants aged 0-5 Mountainous Area
months receiving breastmilk Breastmilk and North Central and
only, breastmilk and plain 60 complementary foods3 23.6 66.4
water, breastmilk and non-milk Central Coastal Area
Percent

liquids, breastmilk and other

50
Breastmilk and other
Central Highlands 31.6 55.6
milk/formula, breastmilk and
complementary foods and no milk / formula2
South East 25.2 46.0
breastmilk 40
Ho Chi Minh City 34.0 42.3
Breastmilk and non-milk
Notes: 1) may also have been 30 liquids1
Mekong River Delta 14.6 52.0
fed plain water; 2) may also
have been fed plain water
20
and/or non-milk liquids; 3) may
also have been fed plain water,
Breastmilk and
plain water
Percent of newborns put to the breast within one hour of
non-milk liquids and/or other birth, and percent of children aged 6-23 months who
milk/formula; 4) may have been 10
fed plain water, non-milk receive food from at least five out of eight food groups, by
Breastmilk only
liquids, other milk/infant
formula and/or solid, semi-solid
geographic region
0
and soft foods.
0-1 2-3 4-5
Age in months

The Survey measuring Sustainable The objective of this snapshot is to Survey Findings Report for this and
Development Goal Indicators on disseminate selected findings from other surveys are available at
Children and Women (SDGCW) Viet the Viet Nam SDGCW Survey 2020- mics.unicef.org/surveys.
Nam was carried out in 2020-2021 by 2021 related to Infant and Young
the General Statistics Office as part of Child Feeding. Data from this
the global MICS programme of snapshot can be found in Tables
UNICEF. Technical and financial TC.7.1, TC.7.3, TC.7.5, TC.7.6 and
support was provided by UNICEF and TC.7.7 in the Survey Findings Report.
UNFPA. Further statistical snapshots and the