Breastfeeding Can Save Over 1 Million Lives Yearly (2)
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Thanks for sharing this positive press release from UNICEF. It
contains several important messages for anyone concerned about
public health.
Unfortunately, the article uses the definition of predominant
breastfeeding, that is, providing no food or milk (including of
course formula). Exclusive breastfeeding also recognizes that
breast milk contains all the water the infant needs (not in-
cluded in the list of what breast milk provides) and excludes
water and other liquids from the infant diet. Too bad UNICEF (or
the journalist?) missed the opportunity to make this point, as
this where otherwise breastfeeding-positive cultures like those
in Africa fall down.
As infants often are no longer carried on the mother's body (al-
lowing mothers to read subtle signals on when they need to
eliminate or eat), they need to cry to signal when they are hun-
gry. In grandmother's day, a crying infant was usually a sign of
disease. Partly for this reason and partly because it's tradi-
tional, many mothers report that older women insist on their
giving infants water, sugar water, glucose water (in all three
cases sometimes including salt, probably due to misunderstanding
of the ORS message), honey, ghee, gripe water, and herbal teas
(some of which are hepatotoxic to newborns).
Actually, 39% of infants less than six months old are currently
being exclusively breast-fed. Very few of these were exclusively
breast-fed from birth through six months (or even say 4 months
for that matter).
As you may know, the Zhitambo study in Zimbabwe presented find-
ings in Bangkok confirming earlier ones from South Africa. Ex-
clusively breast-fed infants born to HIV-infected mothers have
double the chance for HIV-free survival as partially breast-fed
infants.
Readers who would like to access this and other data on the in-
fant feeding component of PMTCT can write to me and get an invi-
tation to sign up for the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Ac-
tion Yahoo Group website on HIV and Infant Feeding.
Ted Greiner
(As of September, Senior Nutritionist, PATH, Washington DC)
mailto:Ted.Greiner@excite.com