The non-compliance of mothers to exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months have been said to affect the intelligence quotient of children, thereby resulting in poor academic performance.
Commissioner for health, Professor Princewill Chike, stated this while fielding questions from newsmen during a breastfeeding awareness campaign at St. John’s Anglican Church, Rumueme in Obio/Akpor local government area on Thursday.
According to him, human breast milk has all the necessary nutrient a child requires to be healthy.
He stressed that breast milk provides adequate food nutrients from the first day of life to two years of age and cannot be equated with any other kind of milk.
He urged lactating and would be mothers to maintain the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, adding that its a child’s survival strategy.
‘’We encourage mothers to practice breastfeeding. If they want their children to be the best brains, the best performing student in school and best-performing adult for tomorrow, feed them with breast milk. Human breast milk is best for children and animal milk for animals.
“When a child is not properly breastfed with human milk which has the essential nutrients, the child would definitely be lacking in certain things.
“The child’s growth and brain will be affected, their fight against diseases and sicknesses will also be affected. Child’s mortality rate will be on the increase. When they are not well fed, they don’t have enough nutrition, they easily succumb to infections that attack their bodies”
The state commissioner for health also advised employers of labour to provide crèches in their offices in order to encourage mothers to be faithful in the exercise, stressing that it will help to reduce the mortality rate so far recorded.
“The set by the world health assembly calls for exclusive breastfeeding in at least 50% of children by 2025. Rivers state is committed to achieving this target and continues to promote enabling work environment including social structures that support mothers and their families in breastfeeding”
