This document presents a guide for a series of modules designed to train health professionals how to adapt integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI) child feeding recommendations to the local African context. The modules, based on the results of a regional seminar held in Dakar, Senegal in July 1997, utilize adult training methods and an active, participatory approach to instruction; an introductory chapter discusses this pedagogical approach in some detail. The modules are as follows: (1) overview of the nutritional status of children under five, nutrition education programs, and the difficulties of changing child feeding behavior; (2) the benefits of adapting the IMCI nutritional component; (3) research methods for effecting true change; (4) practical application of the primary consultative research tools for improving child feeding; (5) using consultative research to adapt the IMCI feeding recommendations to a local context; (6) using trials of improved practices (TIPS), the core method in consultative research, which consists of testing feeding recommendations in households; (7) presenting and validating findings of TIPS. Each module covers: instructional objectives; the time required for training; a series of sessions allowing for knowledge, information, and skills to be conveyed in a series of pre-planned steps; a sequence of exercises, led by the instructor, that reflect a specific pedagogical progression and that actively involve the trainees; tips for implementing each activity; teaching aids; and supplementary notes on the materials presented.
