BANGALORE: The National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Karnataka Chapter, on Monday launched the "Battle against the feeding bottle campaign."

The campaign, in association with the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, aims at creating awareness on the ill-effects of the practice of bottle-feeding prevalent among the urban population.

The National Neonatology Forum plans to educate people on the importance of breastfeeding and on the harm caused by bottle-feeding, which is considered to be the cause of gastroenteritis, malnutrition, infections and lack of immunity among children.

The theme for this year's breastfeeding week, from Au gust 1 to 7, is to create awareness on the Infant Milk Substitutes (IMS) Act by Indian Government, M.R. Hariram, President of NNF, Karnataka, told presspersons here on Tuesday.

The IMS Act encourages breastfeeding till two years and lashes out at all mother-milk substitutes which are in the market which undermine breastfeeding.

The Act sets out requirements to provide information on infant feeding in the milk substitutes containers.

It quotes a recent study of over 1,000 babies in Ghana which has shown a 22 per cent increase in neonatal survivals.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF recommend that all infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months, followed by appropriate complementary feeding along with continued breastfeeding for two years or beyond.

"We strongly believe that the media participation for this social cause would help in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with bottle-feeding," Dr. Hariram said.

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