Lactating mothers in Katsina State has been tasked to practice six months exclusive breastfeeding for their babies in a bid to reduce high incidence of malnutrition among children in the state.
The nutrition manager, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) field office, Kano, Elhadji Diop, disclosed this at a media dialogue on the “Strong with breast milk only” initiative as part of events commemorating the world breastfeeding week 2022 in Katsina.
He said Katsina State in the recent figure released on exclusive breast milk by the UN Standing Committee had improved from 0.7 to 21 per cent, adding that the state has a long way to go before attaining the global target of 50 per cent before the year 2030.
Stressing that malnutrition has been an underlying cause of 45 per cent of all deaths of children under five and the largest single contributor to diseases, he harped on the need for the campaign to enlighten and encourage mothers on six months of exclusive breastfeeding of babies.
He said, “Nigeria ranked number one in Africa, second in the world in terms of numbers of children malnourished. Katsina State has about 1.24 million children who are stunted, 82,492 wasted and 1.2 million suffering from anaemia. Two out of ten children born in the state are not exclusively breastfed.”
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