Abuja — Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dora Akunyili, has cautioned mothers on excessive dependence on breast milk substitutes.

Akunyili, who spoke during the launch of a crËche built by her agency on Tuesday in Abuja, said the use of breast milk substitutes was fraught with many dangers.

She admonished career women to resist the lure of switching to baby food as breast milk when properly stored can be given to babies in the absence of their mothers.

According to statistics provided by UNICEF in 15 years, only 38 per cent of infants less than six months of age in the developing countries are exclusively breastfed.

In Nigeria the figure is even lower.

The NAFDAC boss, who has been in the forefront of promoting exclusive breastfeeding among mothers, lamented that gains previously made in exclusive breastfeeding are being eroded.