Characteristics of the included studies selected for meta-analysis.

1including number of mothers enrolled and number of children whose anthropometric data was provided;
2from the enrollment until the final measurement of the children;
3time points at which growth of child were measured;
4NG means not given;
51–1.5 RDA of several micronutrients, details of the component were not given;
6WAZ means weight-for-age z scores;
7HAZ means height-for-age z scores;
8WHZ means weight-for-height z scores;
9UNIMMAP contains 15 vitamins and trace elements. They are vitamin A (800 µg), vitamin E (10 mg), vitamin D (5 µg), vitamin B1 (1.4 mg), vitamin B2 (1.4 mg), niacin (18 mg), vitamin B6 (1.9 mg), vitamin B12 (2.6 µg), folic acid (400 µg), vitamin C (70 mg), iron (30 mg), zinc (15 mg), copper (2 mg), selenium (65 µg), and iodine (150 µg);
10there were six intervention groups including UNIMMAP, Fe60F, Fe30F plus early or usual food invitation. Fe60F means 60 mg iron+folic acid; Fe30F means 30 mg iron+folic acid;
11the effect of intervention was estimated with mixed effect models;
12estimated based on the descriptions from the study;
13the effect of the intervention was estimated with mixed effect linear and logistic model;
14data was not provided for analysis.