Exclusive breast feeding will reduce under 5 deaths – stakeholders
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Stakeholders at a one day engagement workshop, on Tuesday, harped the need for mothers to adopt exclusive breast feeding, saying that it would reduce the high rate of malnutrition suffered by children under the age of 5 years.
There is an ongoing rise in the prevalence of malnutrition across the country. Gombe state, which is rated to be the second state with the highest burden of malnutrition in Nigeria. According to the NDHS 2018 report, the stunting rate of children under five is at 44.6% and 26.9% underweight.
Speaking on the theme; leveraging partnership for sustainable Nutrition Programming, at a consultative consultation meeting organised by Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Ruwaydah Bello Abubakar, Federal University of Kashere, Gombe, said breast feeding is one of the essentials that a baby would have for growth and survival.
She said, “When you breast feed your child, he or she gets the essential nutrients and element required for that stage. That is why we are encouraging exclusive breast feeding from one month to six months.
“There are still parents whom are still affected by the dissenting voices in the need for the child to take water. However, the breast milk has large quantity of water in it.
“So there is no need for you as a parent to give the child another water. When the child gets to 6 months can be introduced to grains, millet, and those things essential for that stage.”
Abubakar hinted that mothers who regularly attend antenatal and post natal sessions, would not have cases where their children are malnourished.
“A child that has been essentially breast fed will not suffer from malnutrition. However, from statistics alot of Gombe women are not engaging in exclusive breast feeding. But for the awareness from antenatal services the knowledge on the importance of exclusive breast feeding has been helping to sensitise mothers.
“Vitamin A given to the child also helps to supplement what the he needs and also folic acid given during immunization in the hospital helps to a great extent to supplement other nutrient that a child didn’t get,” Abubakar added.
Also, Project Officer CS-SUNN, Ambrose Evhoesor, called for the collaboration of both traditional and religious leaders in the campaign for exclusive breast feeding.
Evhoesor said, “Nutrition is supposed to be something that everybody should be talking about and by the time everyone talks about it we will solve the problem.
“A child that is well breast fed has a good cognitive ability that can think, process unlike the one not properly breast fed the situation is always critical. So we need to encourage our families, communities and leaders.”
On her part, Chairperson Gombe state CS-SUNN, Comfort Mukollo commended Gombe State Government for the release of 25 million naira as counterpart for the provision of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), in the state.
She said, “We want to call on Government to release the balance of N50 million meant for the procurement of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to tackle the dearth.
“Government at all levels should place a high priority on food production to reduce the rate of malnutrition in the state.
“Government should revive the school feeding programme across the 11 LGA’s of the state, to enable students to comprehend and reduce the rate of malnutrition.”
In his opening address, Alhassan Yahya, who also doubles as a state champion urged government across all levels to do the needful towards tackling the issue of malnutrition.
Yahya noted that malnutrition had become a global challenge, stressing the need for it to be tackled holistically.
“Nigeria is one of the countries with high rate of malnutrition, coming back to our state Gombe is one of the states leading in that area.
“We saw a paradigm shift recently, in the past most of us advocated for better dietary intake among women and children. I feel it is rife for all of us including government to focus on infant young child feeding.
“I wish to commend the government following it recent release of money for infant young child feeding under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. it is our hope and prayer that government will continue to do that so that together we can eradicate malnutrition,” Yahaya said.
Elder statesman, who represented the traditional institution, Yahaya Hammari recalled with nostalgia how times had changed.
Hammari said, “What we call nutrition is simply diet; not just diet but nutritious diet. In a nutshell, you can not have enough commodities without resolving the issue about where to farm, where to produce.
“I could recall during the agitation for the creation of Gombe State, I predicted a problem in the sense that the land we occupy is very small, so the issue of where to farm to have food in large supply.”
