Why health minister must sign the amended breastmilk substitute code

A nursing mother breastfeeding her baby.Consensus at a media training was that the revised International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes should be urgently signed into law by Nigeria’s health minister, Professor Isaac Adewole to ensure Nigeria’s low exclusive breastfeeding rate and stunting in children are reversed quickly.

Dr Sylvester Igbedioh, the technical advisor IYCF/Nutrition, Alive & Thrive, a project of FHI 360, at a media training workshop for social and behavioural change with a focus on Infant and Young Children Feeding (IYCF) put Nigeria’s exclusive breastfeeding rate at 23 per cent.

Igbedioh, who noted that Nigeria has the second lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate in Africa, stated that improving breastfeeding would prevent more than 54 per cent of all diarrhoea episodes and 32 per cent of all respiratory infections in Nigeria.

He stated that early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding of babies with no additional food, water or other fluids for six months, was also important to stem increasing cases of stunting in children.

“Nigeria has the second highest stunting burden in the world, with over 11 million stunted children. Preliminary data from MICS showed stunting has increased to 44 per cent in 2016. Severe stunting increased to 22 per cent,” he noted.

Igbedioh said from Nigeria Demographic Health Survey data, Nigeria has not made much progress in improving the nutritional status over the years.

While the code aims to stop the aggressive and inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes, the Technical Advisor, Policy and Advocacy, Alive& Thrive, Mrs. Toyin Adewale-Gabriel said one of the key challenges of exclusive breastfeeding in Nigeria is the continued violation of the Code by producers and marketers of breast milk substitutes.

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She stated that poor monitoring and enforcement continues to undermine efforts to improve infant and young children feeding practices in Nigeria.

Adewale-Gabriel said the new code when signed into law will ensure all mothers are supported to initiate breastfeeding immediately (within the first hour) after delivery, and support mothers maintain exclusive breastfeeding manage common breastfeeding difficulties.

It will ensure that every maternity facility providing newborn care services should practice rooming – in throughout after delivery as well as ensure that mothers be counselled on when to return for postnatal care for themselves and their babies and linked with community IYCF support groups.

President, National Association of Women Journalists, Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole who said breast milk was a good start off for children, urged the media to talk more about why babies should be exclusively breastfed.

“So what we do to change the narrative of what is happening today will determine our future when we are old. If you have a sicken generation, one’s whose brain is not fully developed, you may not have a pension to live on.”