The next INFANT training will be 17th March - 9th May 2025. Learn More
Is there a need for INFANT in your area?
You know your community and you are the expert here. The following questions may help with establishing a case and advocating for INFANT in your catchment area:
How could INFANT be set up in your area?
Talking to your local stakeholders can help answer questions from Step 1 and to co-design the delivery of INFANT in your catchment.
Stakeholders could include services and structures such as:
Consider who may be the lead organisation and what delivery model might work in your area – begin thinking about where INFANT group sessions could be held, participant referral and administration tasks, and who else (other members of your team, organisation or community) could also be trained as facilitators.
Consider your implementation plan
Once training is complete, and your organisation is ready to move forward, the lead organisation will need to prepare an implementation plan indicating the roles of all organisations involved. This is outlined in the INFANT training.
Begin implementing INFANT
Once you have facilitators trained and an implementation plan in place, you are ready to start implementing INFANT!
Implementing INFANT Internationally
The INFANT team is very committed to working with international partners to adapt the program materials for audiences outside of Australia.
Please get in touch with the INFANT team to discuss.
You know your community and you are the expert here. The following questions may help with establishing a case and advocating for INFANT in your catchment area:
Talking to your local stakeholders can help answer questions from Step 1 and to co-design the delivery of INFANT in your catchment.
Stakeholders could include services and structures such as:
Consider who may be the lead organisation and what delivery model might work in your area – begin thinking about where INFANT group sessions could be held, participant referral and administration tasks, and who else (other members of your team, organisation or community) could also be trained as facilitators.
Once training is complete, and your organisation is ready to move forward, the lead organisation will need to prepare an implementation plan indicating the roles of all organisations involved. This is outlined in the INFANT training.
Once you have facilitators trained and an implementation plan in place, you are ready to start implementing INFANT!
The INFANT team is very committed to working with international partners to adapt the program materials for audiences outside of Australia.
Please get in touch with the INFANT team to discuss.
All organisations delivering INFANT will need to have trained facilitators. This ensures you have the most up-to-date evidence-based resources to support delivery of INFANT and consistent messages in your practice.
The My Baby Now app was co-designed with parents, maternal and child health nurses and experts at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University and the University of Sydney. It was designed to complement INFANT.
A feasibility study of the app during pregnancy found:
A health economics analysis of health service usage found:
The Western Public Health Unit in Victoria, in collaboration with INFANT have translated the highly visual INFANT booklets and videos into 6 prioritiy languages: Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Urdu and Vietnamese. These resources support mums, dads and carers with evidence-based feeding and active play advice for babies aged 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age and have been carefully curated to complement the four INFANT group sessions. These translated resources are in an initial pilot phase and will be evaluated and refined over time.
Please complete this form to access the resources. We are using this information for research purposes only, to inform the ongoing evaluation of the translated booklets.
Some organisations who have, or are currently implementing INFANT, have provided a case study as examples of different implementation models.
The following documents may be useful in making the case for early years programs and INFANT in your organisation.
2023
A/Prof Rachel Laws, Dr Penny Love, Prof Karen Campbell, Prof Kylie Hesketh, Dr Sarah Marshall, Ms Anthea Gregorio, Ms Kathy McConnell, Ms Ricky Gelman, Ms Sonya Stanley, Ms Toni Penny, Ms Sheree Spiteri, Dr Victoria Brown, Prof Liliana Orellana, Dr Harriet Koorts along with colleagues from Deakin’s Institute for Physical activity and Nutrition won two awards at the inaugural Deakin Faculty of Health Partnerships in Practice event:
The overall faculty Partnerships in Practice Award was for the partnership work with Victorian Department of Health, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Vic Health), Municipal Association of Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (VACCHO), Sunraysia Community Health, Western Alliance, Raising Children Network, City of Whittlesea, The University of Sydney, RMIT University for the project INfantFeeding Active Play and Nutrition (INFANT): From RCT to state wide scale up.
In accepting the award, INFANT’s Principal Investigator A/Professor Rachel Laws said these awards would not have been possible without the amazing support and input from all the collaborating partners.
“INFANT has been a labour of love and has involved more than a decade of tireless work and commitment by a huge number of people. Without our partners, we could not take INFANT from a research trial to a program that reaches and benefits families and communities.
It’s wonderful that, together with our partners, INFANT can have such a widespread positive impact on the community!”
See how the INFANT early years program supports young families
INFANT has been endorsed by the US Centre for Disease Control funded review as the strongest international model for wide-spread implementation of a community complementary feeding intervention. Find out more here and read the full report here.
2024
Children thrive when they start life with healthy habits, like enjoying nutritious food and active play. Melbourne’s West has diverse communities and more babies born than anywhere else in Victoria. In an Australian first, the Western Public Health Unit at Western Health has translated the Infant Program resources, in collaboration with INFANT, to reach Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Mandarin, and Vietnamese-speaking families. Western Health has been named a finalist at the 2024 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, in the Excellence in multicultural community health category for this collaborative work.
The US National Cancer Institute recommended INFANT as an evidence-based program in 2024, rating it highly for research integrity and dissemination capability. It is the only program in its database of 207 recommended healthy lifestyle programs that starts from birth.
A/Prof Rachel Laws, Dr Penny Love, Prof Karen Campbell, Prof Kylie Hesketh, Dr Sarah Marshall, Ms Anthea Gregorio, Ms Kathy McConnell, Ms Ricky Gelman, Ms Sonya Stanley, Ms Toni Penny, Ms Sheree Spiteri, Dr Victoria Brown, Prof Liliana Orellana, Dr Harriet Koorts along with colleagues from Deakin’s Institute for Physical activity and Nutrition won two awards at the inaugural Deakin Faculty of Health Partnerships in Practice event:
The overall faculty Partnerships in Practice Award was for the partnership work with Victorian Department of Health, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Vic Health), Municipal Association of Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (VACCHO), Sunraysia Community Health, Western Alliance, Raising Children Network, City of Whittlesea, The University of Sydney, RMIT University for the project INfantFeeding Active Play and Nutrition (INFANT): From RCT to state wide scale up.
In accepting the award, INFANT’s Principal Investigator A/Professor Rachel Laws said these awards would not have been possible without the amazing support and input from all the collaborating partners.
“INFANT has been a labour of love and has involved more than a decade of tireless work and commitment by a huge number of people. Without our partners, we could not take INFANT from a research trial to a program that reaches and benefits families and communities.
It’s wonderful that, together with our partners, INFANT can have such a widespread positive impact on the community!”
See how the INFANT early years program supports young families
INFANT has been endorsed by the US Centre for Disease Control funded review as the strongest international model for wide-spread implementation of a community complementary feeding intervention. Find out more here and read the full report here.
Children thrive when they start life with healthy habits, like enjoying nutritious food and active play. Melbourne’s West has diverse communities and more babies born than anywhere else in Victoria. In an Australian first, the Western Public Health Unit at Western Health has translated the Infant Program resources, in collaboration with INFANT, to reach Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Mandarin, and Vietnamese-speaking families. Western Health has been named a finalist at the 2024 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, in the Excellence in multicultural community health category for this collaborative work.
The US National Cancer Institute recommended INFANT as an evidence-based program in 2024, rating it highly for research integrity and dissemination capability. It is the only program in its database of 207 recommended healthy lifestyle programs that starts from birth.
For clinician access to MBN, all you need to do is download the app and complete a brief registration form, which then creates an account to access the app.
Download Now
I strongly agree that INFANT is one of the most important primary preventions and interventions in supporting the important milestones of all young generation’s lifelong health to be successful and healthy physically, mentally and emotionally development and growth in their first 1000 days journey.
I think the implementation of INFANT will benefit our MCH service in many ways. It will compliment the information provided in the 4 month KAS and reduce the need for additional consultations, particularly in our first time parents, at the 3 month and 6 month marks as they will have access to speak with a MCHN. The trade off of 1.5 hours in the MCHN calendar to facilitate the INFANT session will likely reduce requirement of additional consultations and potentially save time overall.
I have really enjoyed this course and found it a great forum for learning – working at your own pace and with the time you have at home/work available to complete. I particularly love the MBN app and can see a big uptake of this from our parents, especially existing in such a digital age.
I can see that once time is taken to embed this program into an existing service, like the MCH service, it will become an invaluable ongoing part of our content delivered to parents/families.
The My Baby Now app is such a sensational easily accessible resource for parents that l will promote at every KAS visit.
I have really enjoyed the INFANT program. The My Baby Now app has been so helpful in discussing topics and referring to with parents during the consults. The information is easy to follow and understand for parents. l have found that parents really enjoy reading new information that is up to date and evidence based.
The INFANT program has made me think about presentations and fostering an interest in healthy eating and activity for children and families from all different backgrounds and cultures for better health outcomes for people living in Australia.
We’re delighted that these in-language resources will allow us to bring INFANT to a wider range of families.
I really liked having actual speech pathologists, physiotherapists and dietitians there to talk about content and answer specific questions.
I think the implementation of INFANT will benefit our MCH service in many ways. It will compliment the information provided in the 4 month KAS and reduce the need for additional consultations, particularly in our first time parents, at the 3 month and 6 month marks as they will have access to speak with a MCHN.
It is great to see a community of professionals dedicated to promoting healthy eating and active play in these first few years of life. I have loved the concise, clear nature of the session plans and information. The additional discussions and information on implementation strategies and possible challenges and solutions was very beneficial in considering how to embed this program successfully in our local LGA.
I think there is an opportunity for INFANT to bring together several disciplines who can work toward a common goal, that is, to improve the health & wellbeing of the families & communities in which we live and work.
