THE National Agency for Food and Drugs Administra­tion and Control (NAFDAC) said it has no power to ban breast milk substitutes but would work seriously to pre­vent aggressive promotion of the products.
Director General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhi stated this at a one-day workshop for 23 staff of the agency on code of marketing of breast milk substitutes in Minna.
Orhi said NAFDAC could not ban breast milk substi­tutes because a child could lose its mother at infancy and there might be nobody to take over the responsibil­ity on behalf of the deceased mother.
“Another reason is a child whose mother is HIV posi­tive. Those children cannot be breastfed by the mother and can only be fed on the substitutes. These are the reasons we cannot outrightly ban the production and sale of the products.”
He said aggressive pro­motion of breast milk sub­stitutes in the country was worrisome to NAFDAC and charged mothers to go on ex­clusive breastfeeding for six months and above to ensure healthy development of their infants.
Niger State co-ordinator of NAFDAC, Mr. Dadi Mul­lah, who represented the NAFDAC boss at the occa­sion stressed the advantages of exclusive breast feeding on children.
“Adequate nutrition dur­ing infancy and early child­hood is fundamental to the development age. It is a critical window for the pro­motion of optimal growth, health and behavioural de­velopment,” he said. Orhi said scientific research had shown that infancy is the peak age for faltering defi­ciencies of certain micronu­trients and common child­hood illnesses.