• Please note that IYCF questions are asked only for the youngest child living with the mother who is less than 2 years old. Therefore, you can only get the dietary intake response for one child in the family, who is the youngest, and living with the mother. Unfortunately, there is no single variable that marks the child as being the youngest living with the mother. You will have to find it by looking at the children born to the mother (Children who have the same mother's identification (same CASEID, I hope you had a chance to browse through the documentation and particularly the DHS Recode Manual)) and living with the mother (recode variables B5 and B9), starting with the last one (which is the first child included in the list (BIDX)) and going back.

• There are standard dietary recode variables in DHS (please see attached), but we always recommend to review the country questionnaire food list and see if all the food items have been captured in the recode. Also, if a dietary food item is not asked in the standard DHS way, it gets recoded as a country specific code and for analysis you want to make sure that you have included that in the analysis.


• In old DHS surveys, meat, fish, and eggs were asked in the same question so they cannot be separated in the analysis. If this person is looking at the old Kenya survey then they cannot be separated. In the recent DHS surveys eggs, organ meats, and other meats have a separate recode.

• It is highly recommended to review the dietary questions asked in the country before the analysis.

• Below is the list of standard variables used, in DHS 5 and 6, to define the indicators Infant and Young Children Feeding practices (IYCF). This list is a subset of the already posted list of the variables foods given in the last 24 hours in addition to the variable M39 (number of feedings) :

Plain water                                                v409
Juice or juice drinks                                      v410
Soup                                                       v413a
Milk (tinned, powdered, fresh)                             411
Infant formula                                             v411a
Any other liquids                                          v413      
Yogurt                                                     v414a 
Any brand of cereal, fortified baby food                   v412a
Bread, rice, noodles                                       v412b
Pumpkin, carrots, squash yellow or orange inside           v414i
While potatoes, white yams, cassava etc                    v414f
Any dark green leafy vegetables                            v414j
Ripe mangoes, ripe papayas                                 v414k
Any other fruits or vegetables                             v414l
Liver, kidney, heart, or other organs                      v414m
Any meat, beef, pork etc                                   v414h
Eggs                                                       v414g
Fresh or dried fish                                        v414g
Beans and lentils                                          v414o
Cheese or other foods made from milk                       v414p
Any foods made with oil, fat, or butter                    v414q
Any snake, snail, frog, rat, insect                        v414b (country specific)
Any sugary foods such as pastry, cakes, chocolates,        v414r  (DHS V)
Any other solid, semi-solid, or soft food?                 v414s 

Number of times variable  m39