Breast feed your babies for immense health benefits

Attention all the new mommies! Is your baby not gaining weight, is lethargic, often gets sick, has frequent bouts of diarrhoea and breathing difficulties? If yes, then are you breast feeding your baby the right way?
There are new mothers who often complain about spoiling their figure or getting tired. However, mothers who breast feed their babies for the first six months reap immense health benefits not only for themselves, but for their babies too. They also develop a special bond with their babies.
Babies who are breast fed the right way from the beginning i.e. within an hour of their birth, receive vital vitamins and antibody-rich colostrum (the first feed). When they are subsequently breast fed for the first six months and later complement breast feed with supplementary food, they grow into normal and intelligent children later in life and have strong immunity and get less sick.
The World Health Organization (WHO) along with UNICEF, the World Alliance for Breast Feeding Action and other organizations celebrate World Breast Feeding Week from August 1 to August 7 every year. They create awareness among the mothers to breast feed their children.
Despite promoting breast feeding throughout the world, almost 60 to 65% mothers do not breast feed their babies due to which about 8 lakh children die below the age of 5 years due to diarrhoea and pneumonia.
Therefore, through the theme this year: “Empower parents, enable breast feed”, let us protect, promote and support breast feeding to improve the health of children.
Dr Ashwani K Malhotra, senior medical officer (retd), Punjab government