The Hindu : National : Norms for child feeding

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 07, 2004

National

National

Norms for child feeding

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 6. The Government today released national guidelines on infant and young child feeding stressing upon the need for initiation of breastfeeding immediately after birth, preferably within 30 minutes, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and appropriate and adequate complementary feeding after that.

The new set of guidelines will replace the earlier policy on infant feeding brought out by the Food and Nutrition Board in 1994 and other instructional manuals on the subject.

The aim is to advocate the cause of infant and young child nutrition and its improvement through optimal feeding practices nationwide, to disseminate widely the correct norms of breastfeeding and complementary feeding from the policy making level to the public at large and to help plan efforts for raising awareness and increase the commitment of the sectors of the Government in achieving optimal feeding practices for infants and young children. Importantly, the objective is to achieve the national goals for infant and young child feeding practices set by the Planning Commission for the Tenth Five Year Plan to achieve a reduction in malnutrition levels in children.

Creating a movement

The Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Kanti Singh, said the guidelines would be useful to State Governments, district authorities, national institutions and social organisations for creating a movement for achieving optimal infant and young child feeding practices.

Scientific studies have shown that malnutrition is responsible, directly or indirectly, for 60 per cent of all deaths among children less than five years annually. Over two-thirds of these deaths are often associated with inappropriate feeding practices and occur during the first five years of life. Only 35 per cent of infants worldwide are exclusively breastfed during the first four months and complementary feeding begins either too early or too late with foods which are often nutritionally inadequate and unsafe.

Nature's way

Breastfeeding is nature's way of nurturing the child, creating a strong bond between the mother and the child and also provides development and learning opportunities to the infant. It fosters emotional security and affection, with a lifelong impact on psychosocial development.

A breastfed baby is likely to have an IQ of about 8 points higher than a non-breastfed baby.

The Government adopted a national code for Protection and Promotion of Breastfeeding in 1983 and the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 1992), is being implemented by the Department of Women and Child Development since 1993.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National