World breastfeeding day: FG warns mothers on implication of not breastfeeding their children with breast milk
Nigeria on Tuesday joined the rest of the world in calling on parents, especially the nursing mothers to engage in the attitude of breastfeeding their babies with breast milk only especially withing the 6 months of their birth to ensure their optimal growth.
The Minster of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole made this call in Abuja at a joint press briefing to mark this year’s World Breastfeeding week with the theme “Sustaining Breastfeeding together”
According to him, breastfeeding has been proven to save lives, ensure good health, growth and development of a child.
” The benefits of unrestricted exclusive breastfeeding practice as initiated within an hour from birth result in ample milk production to sustain the infants and leads to preventable deaths in infants younger than 6 months.
It also reduces infant mortality associated with common childhood illness like diarrhoea or pnuemonia and ensure quicker recovery from illness.
The mother also benefits maximally in child spacing, reduction of ovarian and breast cancer, and ensuring rapid maternal weight loss after birth.’
The Minster further added, the habit of not giving infants only with breats milk in the first six months of life with no other liquids, drinks, semi- food or solid as advocated by the National Policy on Infant and Young Child Feeding has resulted in increasing number of death recorded among children in the country.
“The exclusive breastfeeding rate as at today as shown only marginal increase from the very low rate of 2% in 1990 to 17% in 2013, and the current rate is 25% as reported in the 2014 National policy on Infant and Young Child Feeding.
Today we join the rest of the word to retierate the need for optimal infant and Young Child Feeding practice to ensure preventable developmental milestones in the first 1,000 days of life.
The Daily Times recalls that the annual world breastfeeding week is commemorated every 1st August in accordance with the 1990 Innocent I Declaration,which affirms that breastfeeding protection, promotion and support is the cost effective method of feeding infant and Young children.it is one of the effective conditions that contribute to infants and young child morbidity and mortality.
Ibeneme Ebelechukwu, Abuja
