Abstracto

Health effects of breast feeding beyond traditional perspective- Literature review.

Amir Ali Samnani*, Mehak Samnani, Sohail Shaikh, Naveed Bhutto

High levels of malnutrition have serious consequences on the health and survival of infants and young children. According to National Nutrition Survey (NNS-2011), almost 44% of children in Pakistan are stunted, 30% are underweight and 15% are severely wasted. One of the major reasons for such high rates of malnutrition is inappropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices which includes breastfeeding and complementary feeding. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding was 20.9% at 4 months and 12.9% at 6 months of age. Similarly, although 51.3% mothers started giving semisolid foods to their children at the recommended 6–8 months of age, the proportion achieving minimum dietary diversity (children who received foods of 4 or more food groups) was only 3%