Nestlé, nutritionists charge mothers on exclusive breastfeeding

As part of activities to commemorate this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, Nestlé has held a maternal and child nutrition symposium in Lagos tagged, ‘Tapping into the Window of Opportunities in the First 1,000 Days of Life’, with call for mothers to embrace exclusive breastfeeding for their babies.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is 6 months old. While the nutritious complementary foods should then be added alongside the breastfeeding after the 6 months up to 2 years or more.

Speaking at the workshop, the MD/Chief Executive, Nestlé Nigeria, Dharnesh Gordhon, said that breastfeeding is the best way to provide new-born babies with the required nutrients they need from their mothers.

“The very start of our, especially the first 1,000 days is a unique period that is crucial to achieving our optimal potentials” added Gordhon, who was represented by the Executive Manager, Stakeholders’ Relations, Marie Owoniyi.

He decried poor nutrition and lack of active lifestyle which he noted gradually erodes the health of every individual at any stage in life.

In her submission, a nutritionist, Dr Folake Samuel, of the Faculty of Human Nutrition at University of Ibadan, reiterated the importance of nutrition in cognitive development.

According to her, the 1,000 days of life is a crucial period for neuro-developmental processes.

Samuel explained that “malnutrition impedes cognitive development and affects lifelong learning as well as the future productivity of individuals towards the level of the country’s GDP”.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Head of Nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Chris Isokpunwu, worried about maternal and child health indicators in Nigeria. Isokpunwu revealed that “every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-5-year and 145 women of childbearing age, making the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternity mortality rate in the world.”

Isokpunwu, however, noted, “There is a floppy improvement in the reduction of child mortality going by the death records of 800, 545 and 576 in 2003, 2008 and 2013, respectively.”

He called for actions that would fast-track the recorded improvement in the child mortality rate in Nigeria through the implementation plan for life-saving commodities, malaria control programmes and capacity-building for health workers.

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from August 1 to 7 in more than 170 countries to commemorate the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by governments’ policymakers, World Health Organisation -WHO, UNICEF and other relevant organizations to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies across the world.

UCHE AKOLISA