From WOLE BALOGUN, Ado-Ekiti

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Health experts have explained reason behind the tendency of growing children to take to socially deviant behaviours later in life. They proffered that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the life of a baby can simply ward off such tendency.
Corroborating the recent position of the United Nations Emergency Fund for Children (UNICEF) as canvassed by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), and communicated to Nigerians by UNICEF’s Geoffrey Njoku, its Communications Officer in Nigeria, that “breastfeeding gives babies the best possible start in life,” Mrs. Bamigbe Theresa Olaitan, Principal, School of Nursing, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti, said:
“Many do not know the importance of breast feeding but there are so many advantages of this exercise. One of them is prevention of deviant behaviours and infections, which is normally contacted during the preparation of formula foods.
“When mothers are preparing the formula foods and do not know the right proportion and right amount of water and so on; and using dirty utensils to feed the babies. All these lead to babies having rashes, sickness.
“Exclusive breastfeeding for children for the first six months is mandatory. This is because it is good for their growth, brain development, prevents infections and improves child-mother bonding. Mothers who complain that they don’t have milk in their breasts have not been eating and living right. Every mother has milk in her breasts sufficient for her baby. Every mother has the hormone that signals to the brain to produce milk for the breast.
“Mothers should improve on their food intake and fluid. The money they are using to buy formula foods should rather be used to buy good food to eat. They should eat protenious food, pounded yam with a lot of vegetables, locust beans, they don’t need to eat meat a lot. They also need to rest very well so that they would be relaxed enough to have milk to their breasts.
“Mothers should always give the child breast milk anytime the child asks for it. The milk is easily digestible and that is why the child would always come for it from time to time. The best thing a mother could do for her child is to give him exclusive breastfeeding for the very six months of their life.
“Research has also established that regular breast-feeding prevents cancer of the breast for mothers because it would not allow the solidification of milk in the mother’s breasts. Proper breastfeeding also helps to reduce the cost of bringing up the child. The burden of bringing up a child would be reduced if mothers breastfeed regularly because they would not need to extract breast milk when they feed their child regularly.
“For those who also complain about their breasts sagging when they breast feed, that is not an excuse because whether you breast feed or not, the breast will naturally sag.”
Olaitan spoke during a sensitization campaign for breastfeeding, organised capital, by the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ). It rallied Association of Nurses and Midewives, National Council of Women Societies, Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigeria Union of Teachers and Federation of International Lawyers (FIDA) to campaign for exclusive six-month breastfeeding for babies by their mothers.
The advocacy walk kicked off from the state’s office of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti chapter as participants marched through the capital city propagating the message in market places and motor-parks among others.
Oluwayomi Osuntokun, chairperson of NAWOJ, Ekiti State chapter, said: “As a society comprising mainly of women, we owe it a duty to sensitize our women on the importance of breastfeeding, not only to the children but also to the mothers for whom it prevents cancer when they regularly breast feed their babies.
“We also appeal to our various governments and private institutions to let it be of paramount importance to them to provide crèches in their business organisations for the benefit of breastfeeding women so that they can keep their kids their and have the opportunity to breastfeed them regularly and also work at least for the very six months.
“We have also had a science Quiz Competition for secondary school girls which was aimed at balancing the gender equality in science and technical education. We have had winners and awarded prizes to encourage the girl child to take up sciences and technical education. The people we took the message to were excited about our message and took it. This was made possible because we spoke their languages.”
Njoku said: “Breast milk works like a baby’s first vaccine, protecting infants from potentially deadly diseases and giving them all the nourishment they need to survive and thrive.
“ The scorecard report also showed that an annual investment of only $4.70 per newborn is required to increase the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months to 50 per cent by 2025.”
Nigeria is among five countries in the world where lack of investment in breastfeeding resulted in an estimated 236,000 child deaths per year and $119 billion in economic losses.
The lack of investment case occurred in five of the world’s largest emerging economies – China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria, according to a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Global Breastfeeding Collective, a new initiative to increase global breastfeeding rates.