The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, who unveiled the campaign in Lagos, said the campaign was also to encourage positive attitudinal and behavioural change in IYCF practices.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the campaign was organised by the state Ministry of Health in collaboration with FHI360 Alive and Thrive project, an NGO.
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Alive and Thrive project is funded by the Bill and melinda Foundation.
Idris said: “There is a need to have a change in strategy for the health sector.
“In this environment, the best we can do right now is serious advocacy to our people and doing that means we need to change behaviour.
“We cannot achieve our goals in the health sector if we do not modify the behaviour of our people, because it is very key.
“Behavioural change is more than jingles, pamphlets, leaflets; if the language you are providing does not specifically address the population of the people you want to address, you will not achieve anything. “
The commissioner said that IYCF concept was a global strategy issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2002.
According to him, the concept was issued to reverse the disturbing trends in IYCF practices.
“Studies have shown that stunting at two years leads to a decreased lifetime income by about 10 per cent.
“In 2016, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey rates for Lagos State shows only 51 per cent of our babies are exclusively breastfed.
“For children aged six to 23 months, the rate for the minimum acceptable diet is 18 per cent, minimum meal frequency is 38.9 per cent, dietary diversity is 43.3 per cent.
“Obviously, there is work to be done; this will be done through the improvement of public awareness group action.
“It is important to remember that malnutrition plays a major role in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals; everyone has a role to play in the campaign, “ Idris said.
Also, Mrs Amy Oyekunle, the Chief Executive Officer, Wellbeing Foundation Africa, an NGO, said that the IYCF campaign was aimed at reaching out to 500,000 women by 2020.
Oyekunle said: “Our target is to change the narrative at the most; our breastfeeding rate in Nigeria is very low and we want to change that by 2020.
“It starts with everybody, by spreading the message of optimal breastfeeding.
“The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is committed to improving knowledge and rates of breastfeeding for better health outcomes for women and their families in Nigeria.
“We want to bring back the best practices and ensure everybody knows what is at stake that our children are being stunted, not getting the healthy nutrition.
In her remarks, the State Team Lead, Alive and Thrive project, Dr Uche Okpara, said that the aim of the campaign was to improve the health and wellbeing of children for the first 1000 days of life.
Okpara said that the project would focus on three key behaviours which would reduce the rate of malnutrition in the country.
“These include early initiation of breastfeeding, that is putting the baby to breast within one hour of life, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and complementary feeding.
“We believe that if these interventions are implemented at scale, we will have fewer cases of malnutrition in the state and in the country at large,“ Okpara said.
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