Onyebuchi Ezigbo
2 August 2003
Abuj — The Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, has said that the poor feeding and malnutrition is responsible for the death of about 6.5 million children out of the 10.9 million recorded annually in the world.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2003 World Breastfeeding Week yesterday in Abuja, Lambo, noted that the global strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May last year is an effective instrument for addressing the nutritional needs of infants.
The strategy covers the intervention for child in normal situation, in HIV/AIDS and in emergency and special situations. The minister said that his ministry is already working on a project to produce a document that would meet the needs of the Nigerian child.
He also said that the ministry is handling the issue of protecting child breastfeeding through the implementation and monitoring of the code of marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Lambo, told the large number of nursing mothers drawn from various parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who attended the event that the campaign was not directed at safeguarding the lives of the children but also the survival of the child's mother during delivery.
He listed some of the benefits of breastfeeding and breast milk to include, nutritional- catering for the baby's changing diet composition, health - helps to build immune system, child spacing - provides natural family planning option for couples, psychological and developmental - fosters mother-infant bonding and economic benefits which will lead to reduction in health cost.
On the guidelines on HIV and infant feeding, the minister said that a manual prescribing of the various feeding options has been produced by the ministry and is available for use by HIV positive mothers after attending an infant feeding counselling session.
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