Photo: courtesy of iaea.org

A health official at Juba Teaching Hospital is urging mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for the first six months of their lives to avoid anaemia.

According to Dr Grace Aben Kual who is the General Physician at Juba Teaching Hospital, almost 30 per cent of children brought to health facilities are diagnosed with iron deficiency anaemia.

Dr Grace has attributed the health situation to mothers not observing the six-month exclusive breastfeeding of children.

“As Doctors, we are faced with a lot of cases of iron deficiency anaemia or in other words nutritional anaemia due to lack of iron in children.

“If you go to El Sabah Children’s Hospital or any other hospital, you will find a lot of such cases like almost 30% of children are anaemic.

Medically, she says, children are given foods rich in iron and vitamin D such as vegetables, beans, and lentils within six months of birth.

However, some mothers added food items and water during the six-month period.

This is contrary to WHO’s and UNICEF’s recommendation that children are initiated breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life.

Dr. Aben is now urging mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for the first six months to avoid anaemia as it has all the nutritional elements required for the health of the baby.

“Breastfeeding exclusively for six months will help a lot in reducing anaemia in children.”

“I advise all mothers to breastfeed their children for six months without adding other food items.”

“The child does not need water because the breast milk is composed of 90% water and has every requirement for the baby.”