Mothers encouraged to breatfeed longer

Mothers encouraged to breatfeed longer

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian mothers exclusively breast-feed their
babies for an average of 1.8 months rather than the ideal period
of four months, according to an expert.

The United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) representative for
Indonesia and Malaysia, Stephen J. Woodhouse, told Antara
Saturday that the short breastfeeding period contributed to
rampant malnutrition and lower immunity in babies.

"It is important that mothers breast-feed their new-born
babies at least for four months to give babies better nutrition,
which is vital for the development of their brain," Woodhouse
said during a gathering at Sukapura Islamic Hospital in North
Jakarta.

The 1997 survey of Unicef noted that most babies who receive
less than four months of their mothers' milk were undernourished.

"I hope the government encourages breastfeeding programs at
all levels of society so we can prevent babies from catching
diseases and lower the infant mortality rate," he said.

The current infant mortality rate in Indonesia is 53 out of
1,000 live births, Woodhouse added.

Due to the prolonged economic crisis, 70 percent or about 15
million children under five years of age are undernourished, he
noted.

Statistics from 1998 show there were a total of 20,136,300
million children under five years of age in the country.

"About eight percent or 2.5 million children under five are in
a severe stage of malnutrition," he added.

In a bid to curb further impacts of malnutrition, Unicef has
run several programs, including supplementary food projects and
income generating activities among poor families through small-
scale economic projects, he said.

"Malnutrition in the first two years of life is devastating
because 90 percent of brain cells develop during that period,"
Woodhouse said.

Earlier, Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek stated that
the ministry had channeled a total of Rp 1.4 trillion from the
social safety net fund to support health improvement at the
grassroots level by upgrading the roles of health community posts
in helping needy mothers and children.

Farid said poor mothers and children could go to nearby health
community posts for health assistance as well as for nutritious
supplementary food.

The Ministry of Health has reported at least 610 deaths due to
marasmus and kwashiorkor in recent months.

In response to the worsening nutritional intake of
Indonesians, Unicef plans to distribute nine million packages of
food supplements through 11,000 integrated health service posts
in 2,500 villages in 325 regencies here, hoping to benefit
375,000 children.

Each package is actually worth Rp 4,000 but sold for Rp 500.
"Because we want the parents to be responsible for their
children... we're not giving it for free," Woodhouse added.
(edt)