Giving your baby a nutritious start in life

 












Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. However, breastfeeding mothers are faced with multiple challenges as they strive to practise exclusive breastfeeding. But experts say that scaling up of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers requires concerted efforts and support by the society, reports Sade Oguntola.


Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants. No wonder, grandmothers always insist that babies be fed for long to ensure they have strong bones and minds.
Indeed, grandmothers are right. Scientists have again substantiated why breast milk is best for babies and the need to give breast milk to support good brain development. They found that longer breast-feeding times are associated with better language skills at age three and better verbal and nonverbal intelligence at seven years old.
For the study, researchers studied 1,312 mothers and children involved in the Project Viva study. The mothers were enrolled between April 2009 and July 2012, and the children were followed up until they were seven years old.
The researchers specifically looked at how long children were breast-fed and how much fish the mother ate during breast-feeding, since omega-3 fatty acids have been previously shown to aid in brain development.
Cognitive tests were used to evaluate each child’s intelligence level while controlling for other variables that could impact intelligence, including the mother’s intelligence and the child’s home environment.
According to this study published in JAMA Paediatrics, children who were breast-fed scored significantly higher on a picture-vocabulary test at three years old. For each additional month of breastfeeding, children scored 0.21 points higher.
In addition, children who were breast-fed longer also scored better in an intelligence test given to them at seven years old.
Also, each additional month of breastfeeding was associated with a 0.35 points higher score on the verbal section, and a 0.29 points higher score on the non-verbal score.
Breast-feeding offers protection to babies and also provides added benefits for mothers. The milk contains antibodies that protect the infants from illness. Breast-feeding ensures lower rates of ear infections, stomach viruses, respiratory infections, atopic dermatis, asthma, obesity, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, childhood leukaemia, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Moreover, a study has also linked breastfeeding with an improvement in social status. Also, the mother can experience a better bond with her child and save money on formula if she breast-feeds. It can also lower her risk of type 2 diabetes, some cancers and postpartum depression.
WHO recommends that all infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, but breastfeeding rate is less than 13 per cent in Nigeria partly because mothers lack the support to initiate, establish and maintain optimal breastfeeding practices as well as traditional beliefs.
For instance, a 2012 survey on constraints to exclusive breastfeeding practice among breastfeeding mothers in Southwest Nigeria showed that the perception that babies continued to be hungry after breastfeeding (29per cent); maternal health problems (26 per cent); fear of babies becoming addicted to breast milk (26 per cent); pressure from mother-in-law (25 per cent); pains in the breast (25 per cent); and the need to return to work (24 per cent) were major constraints to exclusive breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding has to be learned and many women encounter difficulties at the beginning. Nipple pain and fear that there is not enough milk to sustain the baby are common even though nearly all mothers are physically able to breastfeed and will do so if they have accurate information and support.
Worst still, nearly all the designated “baby-friendly” facilities thanks to the WHO-UNICEF Baby-Friendly Hospital initiative in 1992 to provide this support and improve care for mothers and newborns had discontinued from the policy due to paucity of funds.
Also, the enabling conditions at work, such as paid maternity leave, part-time work arrangements, on-site crèches, facilities for expressing and storing breast milk, and breastfeeding breaks, to support nursing mothers are missing.
Mrs Rebecca Hammed, a school teacher, said it was difficult for her to breast-feed exclusively because the school lacked a crèche for babies.
“Most schools, government establishments and private companies such as banks have no crèche for working nursing mothers to breast-feed their babies. Those that previously had such facilities when the campaign to breastfeed babies exclusively started had folded up.
“Because of this impediment, it is very difficult for any of us to think of doing exclusive breast-feeding because one is not allowed to leave office until after closing.”
“Many working mothers are forced to drop their babies in day-cares which are usually far from their places of work.  Even where the day care centres are close, the break time at work may be very short, making it difficult for mothers to rush to such centres to breast-feed their babies.
Deputy Director on Nutrition, Lagos State Ministry of Health Dr Abimbola Ajayi, however assured that nursing mothers need not be afraid that their babies will keep crying because they were not producing enough milk to sustain them.
According to her, “the child cannot take all that he or she needs at once that is why we talk about feeding the child on demand. You may feed the child now within the next minute the child will be hungry. This is because most of the breast milk is water.”
On the best way to breastfeed a baby, she explained that when a mother breast feed from one breast, that one breast will give the complete breast milk if she continued to breastfeed that child on that one breast until there is no more water or milk coming out from that one breast.
What is more, she said breast milk was also the best women with HIV should give to their babies in their first six months of live.
According to her, if breastfeeding is mixed with other modes of feeding, it creates a lot of problems for the child. It would not only dilute the nutrient value, it would also create a problem for the child by making sure that the virus penetrates into the body of the child easier.
Paradoxically, contrary to the belief of many women, breastfeeding is not the cause of a sagging breast. Dr Garba Omale, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Garki General Hospital, Abuja, in an interview insist that it is nature and not breastfeeding that causes drooping breasts.
He said: “When breasts are pulled down by gravity, genes which determine the elasticity of your skin and ligaments are the only things that can prevent them from sagging.’’
The expert, explaining that the major cause of flabby breasts is pregnancy and not breastfeeding, stated that “After weaning or right after pregnancy or at menopause, even if you do not breastfeed at all, the tissue inside the breast shrinks, while the surrounding skin remains the same.’’
Medical experts, nonetheless, advise husbands to always endeavour to support their wives, while encouraging them to breastfeed their babies outside the home.
They argue that the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding will boost Nigeria’s chances of attaining the fourth target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which focuses on reducing child mortality rates.

source: tribune.com.ng