Paediatricians give parents nutritional advice for babies

The President, Paediatricians Association of Nigeria, Dr. Ngozi Ibeziako, has urged parents not to give water to their babies till they are six months old.

Ibeziako made this recommendation at a symposium organised by Promasidor Nigeria Limited in Enugu.

The theme of the symposium was “The Nutrition Wisdom of Infant Feeding Choices.”

According to Ibeziako, it is important for mothers to know that 80 per cent of breast milk is water and adding other fluids to their diet will dilute the concentration of the natural milk.

Also, a professor of Child Nutrition, Ngozi Nnam, urged parents to give their babies other classes of food apart from breast milk, in order not to complicate their digestive system.

Nnam said, “Human milk contains water, fat, proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, some hormones, enzymes, growth factors, essential fatty acids and immunological factors that play vital roles for adequate development of the infant.

“The nutrients contained in breast milk are complete and adequate in quantity and quality and you need not add anything to it in the first six months.”