Appropriate feeding reduces childhood illness, mortality

Health experts on Sunday said that appropriate feeding during 6-23 months of age reduces under nutrition, childhood illnesses and mortality especially in resource poor settings.
They were addressing the dissemination meeting of South Asia Infant Feeding Research Network (SAIFRN) Pakistan on "Complementary feeding practices in Pakistan" held here at Children Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
The purpose of this meeting was to share the results of the sub-analysis of DHS 2006-07 data focusing on "Determinants of inappropriate timing of introducing solid, semi-solid or soft foods to infants in Pakistan".
The experts said complementary feeding rates are undesirably low in Pakistan compared to other countries in the region. They added to improve timely complementary feeding there is a need to make strategies in this regard including better antenatal counselling. They said there is also a need to have uniform approach for collecting data on complementary feeding to include all WHO recommended complementary feeding indicators. Principal Investigator, SAIFRN Pakistan, Dr Tabish Hazir presented introduction to SAIFRN and its activities in the South Asian region. He also presented data on WHO IYCF core indicators from the region.
Research Administrator, ARI Research Cell, Children Hospital, PIMS, Dr Narjis Kazmi presented the findings of complementary feeding practices in Pakistan.
The participants of the meeting were experts and scientists related to child health research, paediatricians, gynaecologists, representatives of local and international non-governmental organisations, Nutrition Wing, and other stakeholders related to maternal and child health.