“Misguided propaganda on Infant feeding should be punished as the most Criminal form of sedition, and those deaths should be regarded as Murder.”
-Culled from “Milk and Murder”
Dr Cecily Williams (Singapore rotary club)
I walked up to the corridors of a hospital recently to see a new mother (actually delivered the night before), frantically ranting at the Nurses, with her breast dripping milk under the ward gown she wore. She spoke angrily at the Nurse who was busy pumping infant formula milk into the mouth of her barely one- day-old baby, who obviously too, was reacting to the strange mixture being put in her little mouth- with loud cries!
She screamed “Should you not as health care providers be the ones encouraging me to breastfeed my baby? Besides, you never sought my opinion before beginning to give my baby infant formula, and my breast is dripping milk now!!!
A friend of mine lamented seriously about the ordeal she faced at a major hospital in Abuja, Nigeria. She said it almost resulted in a fight between herself and the Nurses who wanted to “help her” by feeding the baby with infant formula milk. She said it was war in the ward before her baby was released to her to be breast fed!
Why is this so, Is the issue of Infant formula milk vs Breast milk worthy of any form of concern to the Nigerian populace and the world at large?
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) banned Nestle Nigeria (which holds 22 percent of the global market of the baby milk substitute industry), among other Baby Milk Substitute companies from attending the just concluded NSN Scientific Conference 2019 held in the Nigerian capital.
Other Infant Formula making industries include Danone (makers of Aptamil), Mead Johnson Nut, Heinz and of course Friesland Campina (which were amazingly not banned by UNICEF as Nestle was). And we are still wondering why…
Many other popular Food Industries (especially the infant food companies) were absent, likely from fear of being picked up by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) or the U bodies…
In 2018, Nigeria recorded only 28 percent of women who did Exclusive breast feeding and only 24% who breastfed for 20months (National Nutrition and Health Survey of 2018). Won’t this have a major effect on our Nation’s GDP in future, when these Infants grow and join the workforce?
Since the 1970’s, The United Nations Protein Calorie Advisory Group has raised concern about Industry practices: ‘That promotion of Baby milks to Mother’s in the hospitals immediately after birth is inappropriate.’
This matter is not now, it’s been an issue from ages, from the beginning of Industrialization and the ease it brought to our food purchasing and storage systems on one hand. And on the other hand, the ailments trolling canned foods and all sorts of processed food items…Up to the issue of Formula milk.
Sincerely, let’s reason these out; Is Infant Formula not a huge help to mother’s that find it difficult to lactate and those that for different health reasons can not breastfeed safely?
Are working class mothers well justified to hide under these guises? And “Slay Mama’s” are they not also finding a shelter of refuge under the Baby substitute Milk?
Again, will the easy availability of these infant food, with the marketing agents of diverse Baby food industries, trolling the entrance of different hospitals and health institutions…Will it ever get some mothers to give Exclusive breast feeding a try?
Is there any marked difference between the brain development of an exclusively breast-fed child and the Baby fed mostly on infant formulas?
Follow as we unravel more on Breast milk, Infant formula and all-round health outcomes of the infant.
This series may just be for you, your sister, your friend or that helpless young mother around you.
Do stay tuned please!
Article written by a professional; Registered Dietitian & Clinical Nutritionist.
#ONYXHShow #NutritionGist #DietandHealth #Infotainment #FitnessandHealth #Exclusivebreastfeeding #InfantFomula #NutritionGistVideos #BabyFoodsTragedy #BrainHealth&Breastfeeding #BeProperlyInformed #Savethenigerianchild #Savethechildren #Healtheworld #UNICEF #NAFDAC #WHO #GlobalCitizens #TheLancet #HelptheAfricanChild
Written by Tolani Fasehun, RD
Clinical Nutritionist/Registered Dietitian
Presenter ONYXH Show
Assistant GM, Operation
Lida Broadcasting Systems (LBS)
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