Ms Ursula Owusu, Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, on Thursday said it is important for all Ghanaians to ensure the implementation of the six month exclusive breastfeeding policy.
She said perhaps the nation also needed to think seriously about granting paternity leave to fathers and giving nursing mothers the opportunity to work half day as well; as such alternatives that could make the six month exclusive breastfeeding policy practicable.
The World Health Organization and the Ghana Health Service are advocating the policy that enables nursing mothers to give breast milk on demand for the first six months to ensure exclusive breast feeding.
Ms Owusu made the comments at the forum to discuss a National Nutrition Policy organised by the Ghana Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for Scaling Up Nutrition (GHACCSUN).
She said “as a country we need to invest into the future of our children if we are to ensure that they have good health” adding that it is important that parents started teaching their children about the importance of balanced nutrition at a tender age.
Ms Owusu also expressed the need to ensure food safety and urged the monitoring organisations to check the health of food vendors since some of them end up selling diseases to their unsuspecting patrons.
The Ghana Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for Scaling Up Nutrition (GHACCSUN) a group of non governmental organizations concerned about improving nutrition in the country is working to make nutrition a priority development issue in the country.
The Forum which brought together members of the Coalition, Members of Parliament and health professionals to solicit new ideas and recommendations on how the new National Nutrition policy should be implemented, also aimed at increasing the coverage of high impact nutrition specific interventions that would ensure optimal nutrition for all Ghanaians.
Mrs Wilhelmina Okwabi, Director, Nutrition Department, Ghana Health Service, said major challenges persisted regarding breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in Ghana saying 45.9 percent of infants benefited from early breastfeeding which showed a decline from the 52.3 percent in 2006.
“Similarly there has been a decline in the rate of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months from 62.8 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in 2011,” she said, explaining that rather, bottle feeding babies below six months which was being discouraged, had increased from 11 percent in 2008 to 18 percent in 2011.
Mrs Okwabi said even more problematic was the high rate of sub-optimal complementary feeding that required that breastfed children be given two or more meals of solid, semi-solid or soft nutrients dense food rich in iron and vitamins.
She advised health professionals to educate families to enable them be in charge of their health in terms of nutrition.
She said the National Nutrition Policy also aims at prioritising nutrition so as to generate interest and demand adequate food and nutrition security among policy makers and Ghanaians.
Mrs Okwabi said the health of Ghanaians and the economic development of the country were closely linked hence the need to ensure that all Ghanaians had access to adequate nutrition.
Nana Ayim Poakwah, Coordinator of GHACCSUN, said investing in nutrition can improve several key development outcomes in Ghana which include child survival, educational achievements and ultimately more economic productivity.
He said GHACCSUN was committed to working to change the unacceptable child nutrition indicators in the country especially the prevalence rate of stunting, wasting and anaemia.
The Coalition said high rates of stunting persist in all regions reaching as high as 34.7 percent in the three northern regions.
