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  • Title: Breastfeeding and food security.
    Journal: Newsl Infant Feed Action Coalit; 1996; ():1-2. PubMed ID: 12320463.
    Abstract:
    Food security is especially important for mothers with infants and young children. Poor mothers or mothers living in harsh conditions (refugee camp, war zone, economic embargo, or natural disaster) who were not encouraged to breast feed face each day the need to respond to their hungry children. Protection of optimal breast feeding practices is a top priority. There are about 50 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world. This number increases by 12% annually. Around 2 million of these people are new mothers. Urban centers in both the developed and developing countries have increasing populations of unemployed and working poor. These people cannot afford breast milk substitutes. North American food banks cannot respond to the many requests for infant formula. Lack of potable water and a dependency on unavailable infant formula and supplies partially contributed to the increase in infant mortality rates in the war zones of Iraq and Bosnia. The increased dependency of sourcing clean water, an inexpensive and inferior breast milk substitute, and fuel for preparation must not exacerbate the burden of food insecurity for new mothers. Lactating mothers need nutritional and social support so they can meet their own needs and those of their children. UN agencies, governments, and infant feeding organizations have developed guidelines to support breast feeding in emergency and relief conditions and to make sure that infant formula manufacturers do not target families in emergencies. The solution to food insecurity is to feed the mother so she can feed her child. Successful breast feeding helps the mother's self-esteem and confidence, which in turn helps her care for herself and her family. Challenges in infant feeding policies include effecting effective promotion, protection, and support of breast feeding in emergencies; reducing unnecessary risks to mothers and infants when there is a limited need for breast milk substitutes; and countering the apparent philanthropic act of breast milk substitute distribution of the infant feeding industry during emergencies.
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