Nutrition during infancy and early childhood is essential to ensure the growth, health and development of children is to their full potential. Poor nutrition increases the risk of illness, and directly or indirectly is responsible, for millions of infants’ deaths across the world. Lack of early nutrition is also linked to long-term impairment in growth and health. On World Immunisation Week, we explore the importance of breastfeeding as the first step to immunising your child.

According to WHO, new-borns must be ideally breastfed exclusively for six months (no water or any other liquid) and continued to be breastfeed for at least more than a year for healthy growth as well as a strong immune system. Breast milk is the ideal nutrition for infants. Read some of the benefits of breastfeeding your child. 

Evidence from human and animal studies indicates that antigen in breast milk can impact actively a child's immune reactivity in both the short and long term. Exclusive breastfeeding helps babies to develop the immunity to fight diseases such as gastrointestinal infections, urinary tract infection, childhood cancers, allergies,asthma and diarrhoea. Breast milk provides life-long protection from obesity and helps develop a higher IQ. Therefore, it is important for a new lactating mother is to establish the first hour contact with her baby. Generally, new mothers are not aware of this golden hour for breastfeeding and tend to throw away the colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk, thick, sticky, yellow or orange liquid which contains a large number of important nutrients, immunoglobulins, antibodies and is very essential for immature immune system of new-born.

Breastfeeding is the best food to give a baby as it contains all the essential nutrients required by an infant during the early months of life. Breast milk acts as a passage for transfer for antibodies and fighter cells from the mother to the infant. Breast milk contains all that babies generally need: proteins, fats, lactose,vitamins, iron, minerals, water, enzymes, immunoglobulins and even stem cells in the exact amounts required for the optimal growth and development.

According to a survey conducted by Medela on breastfeeding trends in India, 2 out of 5 women start breastfeeding within the first hour in Delhi NCR. There have been two major myths associated with the culture. First around the pre-lacteal feeds (mixture of honey and ghee to new-borns for energy and easier acceptance of feeds) is better, but what new mothers don’t know is that this feed can actually lead to an infection and delays the initiation of breastfeeding. The second is about destroying the first milk i.e. colostrum (Golden milk). The fact is that feeding mother’s milk or colostrum in the first hour gives baby a healthy start to fight against malnutrition and common infections later in life.

The Lancet medical journal has also shown that breastfeeding has the highest impact interventions. For India it could reduce 156,000 child deaths, thus rapidly bringing down Infant Mortality Rates which is a major concern for the Government. It can reduce 39, 00,000 episodes of diarrhoea and 34, 36,560 episodes of pneumonia, which means reducing a load on our ailing health system.

According to Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, India ranks the lowest among South Asian countries in breastfeeding rates. It is important to understand that the importance and benefits of mother’s milk can’t be replaced by artificial milk. As magical as it is, mother’s milk is unique and its composition varies daily to answer the specific need of that baby. Breast milk plays an important role in the normal development of the newborn immune system and protects against many infectious disease during infancy and childhood as immune system is still getting mature. Therefore, breastfeeding should be the only dietary intake for a child for the first six months to build a strong and healthy immune system for the baby. Working mothers, follow these tips to get back to work after maternity leave and childbirth. 

This article has been contributed by Dr. Deepika M Pahwa - MPT(Ortho), IBCLC certified Lactation consultant, Lamaze certified CBE & Lactation consultant with Medela India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 24, 2018 10:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).