Nat'l strategy on infant young child feeding soon

"The government is committed to uphold their nutrition status by keeping breast-feeding as major component for the new born and young children," he said while addressing the inaugural session of a two-day national conference in the city.

The conference titled "Breast-feeding and complementary feeding (infant and young child feeding) is being jointly organised by Bangladesh Breast-feeding Foundation (BBF) and the National Nutrition Programme (NNP) at the Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMC) at Matuail in the city.

Emphasising the need for breast-feeding, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf said it could reduce risks of infectious diseases for infants up to two years side by side with preventing other diseases.

"Breast-feeding equally protects the health of mothers by reducing breast, ovarian and uterine cancers and helps control diabetes and save mothers from getting osteoporosis," he said.

Referring to the global health recommendations, the minister said infants should be breasted for the first six months after their birth to achieve optimal physical and mental growth.

NNP Executive Director M Abul Kashem, BBF Chairperson Prof M Q K Talukdar, Secretary General Dr S K Roy, WHO Regional Advisor Louis Georges Arsenault and the UNIEF Country Representative, among others, also spoke on the occasion.

About 600 participants comprising doctors, nutritionists, nurses, scientists, professionals, lawyers, social workers and NGO leaders both from home and abroad are attending the conference.

A total of 69 scientific papers are expected to be presented during the two-day conference.