Indisputably, appropriate childhood growth and development is often to a very large extent facilitated by adequate and ideal nutrition as inadequate knowledge of what constitutes genuine nutrition on the part of parents could result into malnutrition and other diseases for infants.

This perharps explains the rationale behind the commitment of Nigeria’s advocate of ideal health for all, the National Agency for Food, Drug  and Administration Control (NAFDAC) towards a befitting feeding partern for Nigerian babies by confronting infants developmental challenges through relentless emphasis on the imperativeness of an adequately sustained and standardized nutrition for Nigerian infants.

Armed with the belief that only healthy, quality and ideal nutrition for infants at birth could guarantee appreciable and dynamic developmental growth for them, it has consequently implored all nursing and intending mothers nationwide to urgently, embrace the internationally acceptable “six months mandatory exclusive and intensive breastfeeding for the newborn, with subsequent complimentary nutrition from both local foods and natural milk substitutes with continuous breast milk application for a period of two years or more.

Remarkably, the current mode of infants nutrition being canvassed by the Dr Paul Orhii led NAFDAC management team, is absolutely in line with globally recommended health practices as supported by numerous international health organisations among which are the World Health Organisation (WHO),United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) as well as the World Alliance for Breast Feeding Action(WABA)which coordinates the annual World breastfeeding week, to mention just a few.

Undoubtedly, in spite of the various internationally acclaimed sophistications that seems to have characterised human mode of existence over the years, human female breast milk have remained the most unique, nutritious, dependable and highly inegligible commodity certified globally as suitable for feeding newly born babies in view of its very rich nutritional contents such as adequate protein, fats, carbohydrate, salt, minerals, vitamins, water, sugar, anti-bodies, ideal temperature, bacterial free status etc.

Unfortunately, the comprehensive adoption of this internationally  adjudged highly nutritious and pro-infant development ingredients laden substance for infant nutrition by Nigerian nursing mothers appears to have suffered severe setback in recent times  due to the emergence of numerous varieties of breast milk substitutes which ardorns the nation’s markets.

While some mothers hinge their preference for these artificial alternative nutrition on the need to adequately and urgently meet work demand at offices as co-bread winners for their families in line with modern economic demand, some consider it as a strain free and stress free alternative while simultaneously helping them to maintain and retain very enviable and attractive shapes for the admiration of both the general public, their spouses or husbands.

From whichever perspective these arguments are being critically examined, natural human female breast milk remains the most highly nutritious and therefore more advantageous than its numerous man made substitutes which abounds in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

Conscious of the numerous negative implications of current maternal practices whereby  breast milk substitutes appears to have taken over the place of natural milk as ideal nutrition for babies, various countries of the World have painstakingly evolved various strategies and techniques meant to encourage nursing and expectant mothers to resort to the use  of natural milk as a most ideal means of nutrient for their babies.

Interestingly, Nigeria, an internationally revered and acclaimed Giant of Africa, is however not left out in the current global health boosting practices as her unique and vibrant healthy Nigeria guaranteeing machinery tagged, the National Agency For Food, Drug and Administration sControl, acronym  NAFDAC, has since swung into full action in this regard impressing on mothers nationwide, the need to ensure that their infants are fed exclusively, intensively and adequately with natural breast milk minimally for six months from date of birth before ideal breast milk substitutes and locally available foods could be adopted as complimentary nutrients while still continuing with breast feeding for over two years.

Being an agency of the Nigerian Government saddled with the scientific cum medical responsibility to guarantee a healthy population in accordance with its enabling Act tagged:decree number 15 of 1993,amended by decree 19 of 1999 and now known as Act Cap N1,Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 and mandated to regulate as well as control the  manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution,  advertisement, sale and use of Foods, Drugs, Cosmetics, Medical Devices, Packaged Water, Chemicals and Detergents collectively regarded by the agency as “regulated products, ’NAFDAC has left no one in doubt particularly since the advent of the agency’s current management team as to its total determination to ensure and achieve a sustainable, durable, dependable health for both old and young Nigerians including infants.

This laurel winning agency, is absolutely mindful of the fact that Nigerian infants  which will in turn metamorphose into ‘the youth ’often regarded as the nation’s leaders of tomorrow, absolutely deserves the best of both care and nutrition to be medically fit so as to ideally confront the perceived socio-economic and political challenges of the future.

It is also aware that the economic, political and social success of any nation ,is largely dependent on the availability of adequate and highly dependable human resource potentials and thus its current insistence on a very good, amiable, reliable and virile developmental background for the nation’s infants who incidentally are our tomorrow’s adults thereby alluding to the popular saying  that ‘it is an egg that becomes a Hen’.

Expectedly, NAFDAC has severally, made series of very frantic and highly positive result oriented efforts aimed at enlightening and educating  Nigerian mothers in this regard.

Among such infants life saving efforts include, placement of pro-exclusive natural breast milk/breast feeding messages on radio, television, daily newspapers, weekly tabloid and magazines, erection and display of bill boards at strategic locations nationwide, printing and free distribution of public enlightenment booklets  (eg NAFDAC campaigns-which comprises varieties of educative messages in this regard) etc.

Interestingly, the benefits derivable from ideally complying with this regulatory agency’s directives on infants feeding pattern and techniques are indeed numerous and as such only few of such advantages are highlighted bellow.

Apart from fostering  a very strong mother –baby relationship via the promotion of a psychological bond between babies and their mothers, utilising human female breast milk for feeding infants out rightly reduces the risk of mothers developing breast cancer, cervical or ovarian cancers.

It helps to prevent obesity, complications at child birth, maternal mortality as well as check social ills.

Breast feeding accords babies the opportunity and ability to grow faster, stronger, healthier, happier, garner the needed weight, reduces risk of infections, allergy potentials, convenience, enables mothers to speedily return to pre-pregnancy weight as well as encourages child spacing.

Conclusively therefore, the promotion, protection as well as outright support for exclusive, intensive and durable breast feeding as a more ideal nutrition for new born babies should be compulsorily embraced by all and sundry in the interest of our infants, nation and posterity more so that breast milk has been proven by experts as incontestably advantageous particularly due to its vantage status as the milk that nature has already provided for babies and has the ability to adjust itself during feeding so that infants first gets ‘foremilk’ which they gulp easily to quench their thirst and desire to suck the eventual richer ’hind milk’ which satisfies babies appetite. We must all heed the music of reasoning as being played by NAFDAC since to be forewarned they say is to be forearmed.

Ikhilae resides in Port Harcourt.

Martins Ikhilae