The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has decried the inadequate and low rate of exclusive breastfeeding of children by mothers, leading to over 10 million avoidable cases of childhood diarrhoea and pneumonia in Nigeria.
It stated that this has resulted in more than 100,000 deaths among infants in Nigeria.
Mrs Chinwe Ezeife, Nutrition Specialist UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, said this at the 2022 Niger State Zero Water Exclusive Breastfeeding Campaign organized by the state Primary HealthCare Development Agency.
She insisted that according to Nigeria Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2017, about 7 out of every 10 children between the ages of 0 and 6 months are not exclusively breastfed in Nigeria.
She said ”inadequate breastfeeding leads to more than 100,000 child deaths which translates to almost 18 billion naira in future economic losses for the country”.
Ezeife noted that in Niger State about 6.2 per cent of children were not exclusively breastfed, hence denied the many benefits of being exclusively breastfed.
She then urged the government and stakeholders to strengthen policy provisions that support maternity leave for six months in the public sector, saying,” this will encourage breastfeeding among women to improve child’s survival and development”.
Dr Amina Bello, Wife of the Niger State Governor, in her address explained that breastfeeding plays an important role in managing the double burden of malnutrition and inequalities
She stated, “breastfeeding provides a nutritional bonding avenue between mother and child, therefore, this campaign should be taken to every household for women to exclusively breastfeed within six months”.
She urged the public to collectively carry the message of the importance of breastfeeding to every household to create awareness.
The Executive Director, Niger State Primary HealthCare Development Agency, PHCDA, Dr. Ibrahim Dagana in his remarks said the campaign on breastfeeding would be carried out in 25 LGs and the 274 primary and secondary centres of the state.