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'Nothing can substitute breast milk'
Prof Soofia Khatoon, Secretary, Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation and Head of Paediatrics Department, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, talks to The Daily Star
NO formula can substitute breast milk for a newborn’s survival and well being, says Prof Soofia Khatoon, Secretary of Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation.
It provides nourishment to the babies, reinforces their body's ability to fight infection, enhances their aptitude skill and makes it more likely to decrease health complications when they grow up, she said.
"The importance of breastfeeding for children cannot be stressed enough,” said Prof Khatoon, who is also the Head of the Paediatrics Department of Dhaka's Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital.
It is recommended that the diet of a newborn should exclusively comprise breast milk for the first six months, she said adding that whether the mother keeps to the recommendation or not would have both short term and long term consequences.
However, only 64 percent of mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months in Bangladesh, said Prof Khatoon quoting the Bangladesh Demographics and Health Survey-2011 (BDHS).
A major reason for the low percentage is attractively marketed alternatives to breast-milk.
“This is alarming,” she said, "there are so much advertisement and promotion for artificial milk for babies”.
What is more alarming is the fact that many well-known consumer companies are promoting these products a practice that is completely illegal under the Breast-milk Substitutes (Regulation of Marketing) Ordinance of 1984, she added.
Increasing number of working mothers is another reason. But the fact that the government has decided to give six months of maternity leave to mothers was a big step towards solving that prob-
However, some mothers usually spend the maternity leave by going to vacations instead of taking care of their babies, she observed.
Also, the private sector should come forward and offer paid maternity leave to mothers like the government, she said, adding that the Prime Minister herself has urged the private sector to do it.
After six months of exclusive breastfeeding, children should be given complementary foods to add more nutrients to their diets.
“Many mothers are seen giving 'shuji' to their babies. What the mothers usually do is add the shuji to water and feed that, which is not right,” added Dr Khatoon.
Lentil, sugar and oil should be added to the shuji before it is given to the children, she said stressing on the need to give homemade food rather than consumer foods.
“Oil is very important, as it provides them with necessary calories
and fat," she said. "However, breastfeeding should go on along with the complementary feeding."
It is called “complementary feeding" because it is supposed to complement breastfeeding, she added.
Hygiene is very important for children, she said adding that hands should be washed and foods served to the babies should be fresh to avoid infection.
Many doctors suggest that mothers suffering from physical illness such as Typhoid, TB or other diseases should not breastfeed their babies, which is a blatantly wrong advice, said Prof Khatoon.
Even while suffering from sickness, mothers can breastfeed their babies without consequences, she added.
Breastfeeding is not healthy for just the babies, she said. “Breastfeeding cuts chances of breast cancer. Every year of breastfeeding reduces chances of breast cancer by 4.3 percent. It can save lives of many mothers."