<i>Breastfeeding for first 6 months can cut 13pc child deaths, says ICDDR, B report</i>
Exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months, continued till 11 months would prevent 13 percent of all deaths of children below five years of age in low-income countries.
This was presented in a recent report of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continuation for two years.
The report says appropriate feeding practices during infancy and childhood are essential for attaining and maintaining proper nutrition, health and development.
Inappropriate feeding practices particularly after the age of six months, when breast milk alone is not sufficient to meet increasing nutrient requirements for growth, result in high rate of childhood malnutrition in low income countries.
Breastfeeding is common in Bangladesh where 99 percent of infants below 12 months are breast-fed.
However, prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding is 43 percent in infants under six months, which has not changed over the last decade, with serious implications for nutritional well-being and mortality of children.
Forty-three percent of neonates are breast-fed within one-hour of birth and the medium duration of breastfeeding is 32.8 months but exclusive breastfeeding is only 1.8 months.
In Bangladesh, complimentary feeding starts too early or too late and foods offered are often inappropriate.
Among infants less than two months of age, 17 percent drink milk other than breast milk including fresh or powdered cow milk or infant formula, six percent are given other liquids while another 6 percent receive solid or semi-solid food.
On the other hand, 25 percent of infants between six to nine months of age are not fed any solid or semi-solid food alongside breast milk.
Among infants past exclusive breastfeeding age, only 42 percent are fed according to WHO recommended infant and young child feeding practices.
A study conducted in Matlab of Chandpur district showed that the amount of energy from complementary food offered to infants was about 74 percent of the recommended amount.
The study found that for children between six to eight months of age, mean intake of vitamin A from breast milk and complimentary food together was 44 percent. For children between nine to 12 months, it was 48 percent of the required nutrient intake.
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