By Rauf Oyewole
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed worries over the low level of exclusive breastfeeding, revealing that only 26 percent of the children receive benefit from the life saving nutrient exclusively in Bauchi State.
The UN Agency also charged the Bauchi State Government to approve six months paid maternity leave for lactating mothers for proper exclusive breastfeeding.
UNICEF's Bauchi Chief of Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, made the appeal on Monday while speaking with journalists in commemoration of this year's World Breastfeeding Week. Rafique, who expressed concerns about the status of child nutrition in Bauchi, said that the situation is a “very grave” situation.
According to her, half of the children are malnourished, adding that more have been malnourished in the past, leading to chronic malnutrition and stunting.
“There are a lot of children in Bauchi as a state, and the nutrition situation is very poor. And, you know, breastfeeding is one of the first promises towards good nutrition and survival of the child.”
She urged mothers to embrace exclusive breastfeeding which she described as a life saving nutrient for survival of children. “Every grandmother should know. The whole community should know. And now I will talk about the theme of this year for breastfeeding,” she said.
Rafique also lauded the chairmen of local government areas for prompt contribution of N100 million to the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) while urging the Governor, Bala Mohammed to release the promised N200million to allow UNICEF match the fund with additional N300million.
Also speaking, a Nutrition Specialist, Philomena Irene, said that if the six-month exclusive breastfeeding will be supported for every working mother, then there is a need to have some arrangements in the workplaces for the mothers to feed their children if after six months they rejoin the office and initiate complementary feeding, but still they need to continue the feeding for 24 months.
“If they don't have a good private place to feed the child, it's difficult for them to continue feeding while working and performing and contributing towards the country's progress and state's progress.
“It's very important to have all the system support for the mothers and for the families to continue breastfeeding the children exclusively and then continuously till 24 months,” she said.
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