The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Child health expo at Valluvar Kottam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 05, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Child health expo at Valluvar Kottam

Staff Reporter

Maternity hospitals, nursing colleges and non-governmental organisations will participate

CHENNAI: A "child health expo" will be held at Valluvar Kottam on Friday and Saturday. About 35 organisations, including State-run and private hospitals for children, maternity hospitals, nursing colleges and non-governmental organisations will participate. Sankara Nethralaya will hold a free eye check up.

The exposition is being held by the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Tamil Nadu chapter. The theme for this year is "Breastfeeding and family foods: loving and healthy." The effort is aimed at increasing awareness and to emphasise that the family and the doctor help the new mother bring up the baby the right way.

Paediatricians said that mothers should breastfeed the newborns for at least six months to prevent them from falling sick.

"Two years ago a group of academics looked at decades of research and scientifically analysed which intervention would work well. They found that the single most important intervention to prevent under-five mortality is breastfeeding," Timothy Schaffter, State representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said.

Even doctors send out confusing signals because of their lack of knowledge. "Earlier research said mothers should feed for three months. Now they have made it six months," said D. Gunasingh, organising secretary of the exposition.Prakash Gurnani, programme officer, Health and Nutrition, UNICEF, said that the anaemia rate among adolescents was high and the consumption of iodised salt low.

"Doctors, influenced by industry, promoted complementary feed. Now we are weaning the doctors away," Dr. Gurnani said.

"If research proves that a baby should be fed mother's milk for eight months, then we will insist on that," said S. Jayam, paediatrician and founder of Sahishnatha Educational and Charitable Trust.

The expo, part of the World Breastfeeding Week celebration, will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Need for staple foods

Speakers at a workshop organised by the Food and Nutrition Board, Department of Women and Child Development, laid stress on the need to provide staple foods and low cost, easily available supplements. Inaugurating the conference, Mohammed Nasimuddin, Project Co-ordinator, World Bank ICDS - III, said the State had decided to scale up awareness campaigns on the importance of breastfeeding. The Social Welfare Secretary had written to District Collectors to involve all stakeholders.

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