Breastmilk is Best for Babies

• Breastmilk, more than anything else, is a gift of life.
  
• UNICEF and WHO recommend that children should receive only this gift for the first 6 months of their lives.
  
• This means that a child should not be given any other milk, liquid, or food but breastmilk from birth up to 6 months. This is called exclusive breastfeeding.
  
• As a natural, living liquid, the breastmilk has all the anti-bodies and nutrients that a child needs in the early period of life.
  
• It contains over 100 constituents that respond uniquely to every child's specific needs.
  
• Infant formula milk and other breastmilk substitutes are artificial, often made from cow's milk, and may have nutritional quantities that are either too much or too little for the infant

• Out of almost 7 million children (below 5 years old), 87% were ever breastfed. This figure however includes infants whose breastfeeding may have lasted
  for only one hour, one day, or one week only.
  
• In fact, nearly 3.4 million children (49%) were given liquid or food other than breastmilk within three days after being born.
  
• For children below 3 years old at the time of the survey,
  barely 6% were exclusively breastfed.
  Bottlefeeding was common for almost half of these children.
  
• Although 80% of children started breastfeeding within 1 day of birth, 54% were also given any liquid other than breast milk.
  
• Exclusive breastfeeding lasts only for an average of 24 days.
  
• Mothers did not breastfeed their children because:
  

  She does not have enough milk.	31%
  She is working	17%
  Her nipples/breasts ache	17%
  Her child does not want to breastfeed	11%
  Her child is sick	11%
  She is sick	9%
  Other reasons	4%

  
  
• Well-off and better-educated mothers
  whose children were delivered by a health professional
  were less likely to breastfeed their children exclusively. 

• covering not only infant formula but all milk products for infants and young children up to the age two or three;
• prohibiting any sponsorship and/or partnership between the public health and nutrition sectors at all levels and the milk manufacturers and distributors of products covered by the law and the Code;
• banning the advertisement and marketing of milk products for the 0- to 2- or 3-year-old children;
• banning all sponsorships and promotional activities of infant formula manufacturers and distributors in all health facilities and contact with pregnant women or mothers;
• banning labels with pictures of babies and text idealizing the use of milk formula; and,
• providing stronger sanctions to violators of the Code.