INFANT FORMULA MILK MANUFACTURING COMPANIES LYING TO NIGERIAN MOTHERS AND EXPECTANT MOTHERS ABOUT PRODUCTS: WHO

It's been reported that more than half of parents and pregnant women are known to be exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing, including in Nigeria – WHO, UNICEF

New report also details exploitative practices employed by $55 billion formula industry, compromising child nutrition and violating international commitments

Globally, more than half of parents and pregnant women (51 per cent) surveyed for a new WHO/UNICEF report say they have been targeted with marketing from infant formula milk companies, much of which is in breach of international standards on infant feeding practices.

The report, How marketing of infant formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women and health workers in eight countries – Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam. It uncovers systematic and unethical marketing strategies used by the formula milk industry to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions.

The study finds that industry marketing techniques include unregulated and invasive online targeting; sponsored advice networks and helplines; promotions and free gifts; and practices to influence training and recommendations among health workers.

The messages that parents and health workers receive are often misleading, scientifically unsubstantiated, and violate the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes – a landmark public health agreement passed by the World Health Assembly in 1981 to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry.

“This report also shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Regulations on exploitative marketing must be urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.”

One mother interviewed in Lagos, Nigeria, said, “Advertisements will make me buy infant formula – I see a beautiful and chubby baby on TV, well fed and smiling and there is a container of milk there with all the nutritional facts on it, detailed.”

The effects of marketing in Nigeria are seen in recommendations from health professionals and on digital platforms, with companies using data-driven algorithms to target digital advertising to women whose online behavior suggests they may be pregnant.

Digital influencers make regular posts about formula milk – including celebrities, pediatricians, so-called experts and ‘mom influencers.’

“False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a substantial barrier to breastfeeding, which we know is best for babies and mothers,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “We need robust policies, legislation and investments in breastfeeding to ensure that women are protected from unethical marketing practices — and have access to the information and support they need to raise their families.”

In Nigeria, 73 per cent of women expressed a strong desire to breastfeed exclusively. Yet the report details how a sustained flow of misleading marketing messages across countries is reinforcing myths about breastfeeding and breast milk, and undermining women’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully. These myths include the necessity of formula in the first days after birth, the inadequacy of breast milk for infant nutrition, that specific infant formula ingredients are proven to improve child development or immunity, the perception that formula keeps infants fuller for longer, and that the quality of breast milk declines with time.

Breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond, offers a powerful line of defense against all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting and obesity. Breastfeeding also acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses. It also reduces women’s future risk of diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer. Yet, in Nigeria, only 29 per cent of babies are exclusively breastfed, according to the 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey. The Nigerian Government aims to increase the exclusive breastfeeding rate to 65 percent by 2025.

Alarmingly, health professional recommendations to use formula milk were common across the surveyed countries, particularly post-partum. In Nigeria, 45 per cent of post-partum women had received a recommendation from a health professional to feed formula product – the second highest of the countries surveyed, after Bangladesh (57 per cent).

Health professionals in Nigeria reported that contact with formula milk companies was extremely common in public and private health care settings.

In Nigeria, where women ranked health professionals as their most important source of feeding advice, over one third of surveyed pregnant women said they received a recommendation to formula feed by a health professional.

To address these challenges, WHO, UNICEF and partners are calling on governments, health workers, and the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing and fully implement and abide by the Code requirements. This includes:

· Passing, monitoring and enforcing laws to prevent the promotion of formula milk, in line with the International Code, including prohibiting nutrition and health claims made by the formula milk industry.

· Investing in policies and programmes to support breastfeeding, including adequate paid parental leave in line with international standards, and ensuring high quality breastfeeding support.

· Requesting industry to publicly commit to full compliance with the Code and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions globally.

· Banning health workers from accepting sponsorship from companies that market foods for infants and young children for scholarships, awards, grants, meetings, or events.

ROTIMI AMAECHI AND MAGNUS ABE'S LOYALISTS DIFFER ON RECONCILIATION IN RIVERS APC

    Magnus Abe              Rotimi Amaechi

Members of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress loyal to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; and supporters of the Senator Magnus Abe-led faction of the party, have accused each other of threatening to destabilise the party.

State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Ogbonna Nwuke, who is an ally of the minister, in a statement, in Port Harcourt, on Wednesday, said, “As we speak, we have come upon credible information that allies of Governor Wike and Senator Magnus Abe have lined up new cases that are being filed by different persons at this time.”

He further said, “We have also learnt that some members of a judicial ring that has been used repeatedly in the past to deliver objectionable decisions are to be used as vacation judges.

“The plan is to secure injunctions by any means possible; injunctions intended to halt the APC, which, by the grace of God, and the leadership of Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, is transforming into the mainstream party of the Rivers people.”

In response, a former member of the State House of Assembly who is an ally of Senator Abe, Golden Chioma said, “To be fair to you, Ogbonna Nwuke is very aware that he is lying. Senator Magnus Abe in well-orchestrated public events had told everybody that he is not interested in legal solution. Rather, he would exploit a political solution to the crisis in the party.

“It is also a known fact that the Senator Abe group would bend over backwards to show good faith in reconciling the party.

“We have done everything humanly possible for us to reconcile, but the other side is bent on acquisition or conquest, but peace.

“It is unfair to human understanding. Every man was born with inalienable rights to express himself or to seek justice.

“Even if it is your slave, there is a way you run your slave, he will start to object. Even when you own a bull and you use it to plough your field, when you over plough with the bull, it will stop.”

PALM WINE, PAP DOESN'T ENHANCE FLOW OF BREAST MILK – PHYSICIAN

A physician, Agnes Nwoke, who works with St. Charles Clinic in Urum, has said that the cultural practice of consuming palm wine or pap by nursing mothers does not enhance the flow of breast milk. Ms Nwoke, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Awka on the sideline of the commemoration of 2021 World Breastfeeding Week. She said there was the need to demystify the myth about the effect of palm wine or pap on breastfeeding.

According to her, breast milk production obeys the law of demand and supply.

“It is not the amount of fluid taken via pap or palm wine, it is the intensity of suckling and time of suckling that help the nursing mother to produce more milk.

“The more the breast is emptied, the more it produces or flows with milk. “Also mothers should breastfeed more at night because the hormone called prolactin functions more at night as it contributes to high flow of breast milk,” she said.

Ms Nwoke said that palm wine contained alcohol on the average up to six per cent, saying it might have sedative effects which can make mothers and even babies sleep.

“When a nursing mother takes palm wine, the alcohol in the palm wine gets into the breast milk and it can make the baby agitated or sleep and unable to suck.

“Palm wine does not enhance the flow of breast milk, it is a cultural practice, not medically proven.

“Breast flow is, however, increased by staying hydrated, eating a well-balanced diet, putting baby to breast on demand, resting and having enough sleep.

“Breastfeeding is important for the optimal nourishment, immunity, growth and development of the infant,” Ms Nwoke said.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a recent statement, highlighted ways to support mothers to have adequate breast milk production after delivery.

The statement urged health workers to encourage women to take plenty of water during pregnancy and lactation, as well as examine and encourage breast care during pregnancy. It further stated that health workers should help mothers put their babies to breast within one hour of delivery and ensure suckling until breast milk starts flowing.

It also discouraged giving water or any fluid or infant formula to babies in the first six months, saying that breast milk is a complete food that contains all the water the baby needs in the first six months of life.

(NAN)

'ALLOW YOUR HUSBANDS TO SUCK YOUR BREASTS', CHIEF NURSING SISTER (CNS) TELLS PREGNANT WOMEN

Mrs Oladimeji also urged pregnant women to prepare their breasts during pregnancy to avoid lactation problems after delivery.

Chief Nursing Sister (CNS) asks pregnant women to allow their husbands to suck their breasts (NAN)

Mrs Roseline Oladimeji, a Chief Nursing Sister, in Lagos on Thursday advised pregnant women to allow their husbands to suck their boobs to prepare them for breastfeeding after delivery.

Mrs Oladimeji gave the advice at a sensitisation programme marking 2021 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) organised by Amuwo Odofin Maternal and Child Centre (AOMCC), Festac Town.

“Allow your husbands to suck your breasts during pregnancy. Apart from bonding, it will help the nipples to be out and make it easier for your baby to latch on.

“You can also rub vaseline on your nipples at night before going to sleep. It also helps to soften it,” the apex nursing sister said.

She urged pregnant women to prepare their breasts during pregnancy to avoid lactation problems after delivery.

She added that the colostrum – the yellowish milk that flows within the first five days of delivery – contains nutrients that helps boost the baby’s immunity.

“It is still breast milk,” she said.

Mrs Oladimeji cautioned that certain food, herbs and medications could hurt babies if they cross into the breast milk.

She particularly noted that drinking palmwine to improve lactation could introduce alcohol into the baby’s system during breastfeeding.

Mrs Oladimeji further cautioned mothers seeking advice from people who were not qualified to take care of babies to avoid causing harm to their children.

Also, the hospital’s Dietician, Ms Gbemisola Ogundipe, advised lactating mothers to ensure they take well-balanced meals and lots of water to increase the volume and quality of their breast milk.

“A breastfeeding mother should have meat, fish, eggs and vegetables in her meals. She should also take a glass of juice or smoothies.

“She should increase her fluid intake and this can come in form of water, milk, yoghurt, ice cream and pap,” she said.

Ogundipe also cautioned women against weaning their babies before they get to one year because of the misconception that breast milk changed to blood when a child turns one year.

She said exclusive breastfeeding was not only beneficial to the babies but also to the mothers and their families as it helps to take the mother to her pre-pregnancy weight and lessen financial pressure for families.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the 2021 WBW was, ‘Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility’.

NAN reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF said that though there had been progress in breastfeeding rates in the last four decades, the rates in Nigeria reduced with age.

In a joint statement issued by the Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus and the Executive Director of UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, they stated that rate of exclusive breastfeeding rose from 17 per cent in 2013 to 29 per cent in 2018.

They, however. said that the percentage of children breastfed within one hour of birth in Nigeria estimated at 42 per cent was still less than 50 per cent.

“Breastfeeding rates in Nigeria reduced with age – 83 per cent of the children are breastfed up to one year while 28 per cent are breastfeeding till two years.

“It will show that the proportion of the children who are not breastfeeding increases with age,” it said.

- NAN

TUNDE IS THE FATHER OF MY 2 KIDS, NOT FCMB MD – MOYO THOMAS

Mrs Moyo Thomas, the woman alleged to have had a romantic affair with the managing director of FCMB, Adamu Nuru, which led to the death of her husband, Tunde Thomas, has cleared doubt over the accusations, saying that her late husband was the father of their kids.

Recall that a 45-year-old man identified as Tunde Thomas passed away recently from heartbreak after reportedly discovering that the two kids from his marriage were not his children.

But reacting to the allegations yesterday, Mrs Thomas said only God knows why he died in an untimely period, saying that she remains committed to keeping only the positive memories of her late husband.

She said, “Just like any marriage, Tunde and I had a lot of differences, some of which even led to police intervention. But I remain committed to keeping only positive memories of him. No one can ever understand what transpired between us or what each of us experienced in the marriage; like they say, it is he who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches”.

“In all, I never for once wished him bad. His untimely and sudden death is still a shock to me as it is to many others”.

“On no occasion did I ever tell him he was not the father of our two children. It is therefore deliberate falsehood and certainly malicious to allege and insinuate that I informed him that the children are not his”.

“The children still bear his name.  Only God knows why he died in an untimely period. It is not in my place, or anyone’s place to play God and talk with certainty as to the cause of his death, without proven medical facts”.

“Despite our separation, we never allowed our differences to affect the relationships we respectively had with the children. He still had conversations with the children like any father will, up until his sudden and unfortunate death. It is quite sad and disheartening to see the pictures of these innocent children splashed all over the internet with very disparaging and weird comments. I do wish his family and friends the fortitude to bear the unfortunate loss and I ask that we all be allowed to grieve his loss in peace,” she added.