The Plateau State Commissioner for Health, Dr Cletus Shurkuk says babies who are exclusively breastfed have higher immunity and are less prone to noncommunicable diseases.
Shurkuk said this on Thursday while declaring the 2024 World Breastfeeding Week opened in Jos.
The theme of the event is “Closing the Gap: Break the Record Break Barriers: Breastfeeding Support for All.”
The commissioner said studies had revealed that exclusively breastfeeding a child for six months aside from providing the baby with the required and adequate nutrition had longer-term health benefits.
“Babies who are breastfed exclusively, enjoyed longer term health benefits such as having a higher immune system and were less susceptible to developing noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and certain cancers later in life.”
Shurkuk said that the event’s theme was very apt to tackle the factors that hindered the act of exclusive breastfeeding.
He urged all mothers to embrace the act of exclusively breastfeeding their children as the act was beneficial to both mother and child.
Also, the Plateau state Coordinator of, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Musa Mahdi who called on all stakeholders to support women with effective maternity entitlements, advocated the creation of spaces for women to freely breastfeed their babies.
Mahdi, who was represented by Mrs Lillian Banah, also called for a move to end all exploitative milk formulas which could impede the act of exclusively breastfeeding their babies.
According to him, there is a need for an improvement in the training and recruitment of the healthcare professionals who provide breastfeeding support to women.
Gifts were presented to various women and their babies for exclusively breastfeeding their babies for six months without water or any other supplement.
The global week is celebrated annually in the first week in August.
NAN
