Viola Amule, mother of two speaks to Helen Alison about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding/Lasuba Memo/Eye Radio.

As South Sudan joins the rest of the world on the breastfeeding week, a nursing woman has cautioned mothers against initiating mix-feeding to their babies before six months.

Viola Amule, a mother of two says she did not exclusively breastfeed her second child.

And her baby boy, Lucky Amule, became ill when she fed him with substitute milk before he was six months old.

Twenty four-year-old Viola Amule said her son who just turned seven months old had experienced frequent diarrhea after taking the formula milk.

“That time I tried giving him milk [pharmacy milk] and water, I saw the difference. The baby had diarrhea and just became weak. I regret it and then stopped giving him the milk,” Viola said.

Residing in the Jonduru area, south east of Juba, Viola Amule has now become an advocate of exclusive breastfeeding in her community.

Thanks to the Ministry of Health and its partner organization, World Vision that had given her sessions on breastfeeding practice.

Using her experience, Viola now educates other lactating mothers on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.

“I used to tell them that the first six months, give your baby only breast milk, not water or other things. Breastfeeding will help babies, they cannot fall sick,” she added.

According to UNICEF 2020 report, over 90 percent of babies in South Sudan benefit from breastfeeding.

This is up from 73 percent in 2010, something the children’s agency says is making South Sudan an example to many countries in the world.

However, despite this promising indicator, UNICEF says breastfeeding practices in South Sudan are still far from optimal and further progress is needed.

This is because it says, three in ten children do not receive the best food in the first six months.

A senior Nutrition Inspector in the National Health Ministry has attached not just the health, but the economic benefits to the six-month exclusive breastfeeding of the child.

“When your child breastfeeds, your child will be healthy and it will reduce the risk of malnutrition, the risk of respiratory tract infections, the risk of so many things, and it even saves money because you will not be going to the hospital,” Rita Demetry said.

South Sudan has no regulations over the importation of formula or otherwise call substitute milk.

But Rita Demetry says the health ministry is now working on and developed a legal framework to control the usage.

“We don’t have the code of breast milk substitutes in the country, that’s why we say people are importing into the country so many breast milk substitutes. Nobody can control this because we do not have regulations,” she added.

The World Breastfeeding Week started on Sunday and will end this Saturday.

During this week, lactating mothers particularly those with newborn babies to exclusively breastfeed starting from the first hour of giving birth.

Audio clips for this report were obtained from interviews conducted by UNICEF child reporters, Anyieth David, Helen Alison, and Lavina Albino who are being mentored by Eye Radio on basic journalism skills.