Nursing mothers advised to exclusively breastfeed their babies

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Nursing mothers who have the fear of their breast to sag as a result of breast feeding have been advised to rather breast feed the babies to be able to bring up healthy and brilliant children in the society.

Most mothers in recent times have reluctantly been starving their babies purposely because they fear of their breast sagging. But a Senior Staff Nurse at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Children Emergency Ward, Ninangnisie Ernestina, said whether a woman breads feed or not the breast at some point will sag.

Madam Ernestina who was on Fiila Lunch-Time Health Talk programme today said exclusive breastfeeding in its entirety promotes the health of both mother and infant and helps to prevent diseases.

According to her, longer breastfeeding has also been associated with better mental health through childhood and into adolescence.

Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than using infant formula from a baby bottle or other container.

Madam Ernestina opined that babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. She said experts recommend that children be breastfed within one hour of birth, exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, and then breastfed until age two with age-appropriate, nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods.

She added that artificial feeding is associated with more deaths from diarrhea and other related diseases in infants if they are not up to the require age of feeding.

She further added that exclusive breast feeding can help reduce the risk of extreme obesity, reduce the risk for developing allergic diseases and improves cognitive development in children.

The more months children are breastfeed the less likely they are to suffer from depression, delinquent behavior, attention issues and other psychological problems.

The Senior Staff Nurse from the Children emergency ward from TTH therefore recommended mash kenkey, soupy foods among others to nursing mothers to enable them get more breast milk for their babies.