Friday Olokor, Abuja
Over five million newborn children in Nigeria have been deprived of essential nutrients and antibodies because they do not get exclusively breastfed, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in Abuja on Wednesday.
The agency also stated that out of the seven million children born in the country every year, only 25 per cent are exclusively breastfed from zero to six months of age.
A statement issued by the Chief of Nutrition for UNICEF Nigeria, Arjan de Wagt, in commemoration of the 2016 World Breastfeeding Week, said Nigeria’s progress in exclusive breastfeeding is slow.
Wagt said, “We know that the pressure to give water to newborns in addition to breast milk is high. But the stomach of a baby is so small it can barely hold 60 millilitres of liquid and when it is filled with water, it leaves no room for breast milk and its life sustaining nutrients.”
“Babies who are fed nothing but breast milk from the moment they are born until they are six months old grow and develop better. Breast milk gives a child a head start in life and a chance to fight child malnutrition later in life.
“Nigeria is making progress in exclusive breastfeeding very slowly. Over 10 years, Nigeria has increased its exclusive breastfeeding rate from 12 per cent to only 25 per cent. By comparison, in 1994, both Ghana and Nigeria had both exclusive breastfeeding rates of 7.4, but by 2013, Ghana had moved up to 63 per cent.”
According to her, Nigeria’s lack of progress in exclusive breastfeeding denies millions of newborns the benefits of breast milk.
The UNICEF nutrition expert said research has shown that an exclusively breastfed child would be 14 times less likely to die in the first six months than a non-breastfed child, adding that breastfeeding drastically reduces deaths from acute respiratory infection and diarrhea — two major child killer diseases.
“The National Food and Nutrition Policy from 2014-2019 has a strong exclusive breastfeeding component; and while UNICEF welcomes the policy, it urges the Federal Government to include a budget line for nutrition and a timely release of funds for immediate implementation.
“Lack of exclusive breastfeeding is implicated in the current high rate of child malnutrition in Nigeria. Exclusive breastfeeding is free and breast milk is readily available; so, exclusive breastfeeding should be our first strategy in fighting child malnutrition,” noted Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.
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