PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Paediatrics Association (PPA) has expressed concern over what it calls unethical promotional tactics of the manufacturers of formula milk.

The association has asked the government to implement breastfeeding law to safeguard children from malnutrition, the main cause of children`s ailments in the country.

`In Pakistan, 48 per cent children suffer from malnutrition. Among them 12 per cent are severely malnourished, who are exposed to diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and measles due to which they risk deaths,` PPA president Prof Amin Jan Gandapur told the participants of a symposium at Khyber Teaching Hospital on Wednesday.

The symposium was organised to mark the World Breastfeeding Week and promote exclusive breastfeeding to protect children from preventable diseases.

`There are lack of understanding of the risks of not breastfeeding and illiteracy and widespread unethical marl(eting by makers of breast milk substitutes,` said Prof Amin Jan.

He urged the government to specify breastfeeding room for mothers at workplaces and take appropriate measures to protect, promote and support infant and young child feeding.

`We need to successfully initiate breastfeeding in the very first hour after birth and exclusively breastfeed the baby for first six months,` he said. He advised supplementing breastfeeding with appropriate and adequate complementary food after six months and continuing it during the second year and beyond.

`Moreover, the complementary feeding is late and often inadequate,` said Prof Amin Jan. Giving statistics, he said that about 96.5 per cent mothers breastfed their children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26.4 of them started it within one hour of the birth and 72 per cent after one day.

In Sindh, the breastfeeding ratio is 96.6 per cent and 19.7 per cent of them start it within one hour and 73 per cent after one day. In Balochistan province, 92.2 per cent children are breastfed and 42 per cent of them start it within one hour of birth and 79 per cent after one day.

In Punjab, 92.8 per cent children are breastfed with 12.7 per cent of them starting it in first hour and 45 per cent one day after birth.

In Pakistan, 29 per cent mothers started early breastfeeding against 41 per cent in India, 36 per cent in Bangladesh and 80 per cent in Sri Lanka, Prof Amin Jan said. He said that in Pakistan, 37 per cent mothers exclusively breastfed their children against 46 per cent in India, 64 per cent in Bangladesh and 76 per cent in Sri Lanka. Similarly, 36 per cent mothers in Pakistan began giving supplementary food to their children af ter six months against 56 per cent in India, 71percentinBangladeshand87percentin SriLanka.

The PPA president said that breastfeeding was an unequaled way of providing an ideal and perfect food to the infants for their healthy growth and development as besides food it stimulated their immune systems and improved response to ñghtallsort ofdiseases.

`Breastfeeding protects babies from diarrhoea and pneumonia. It contains many hundreds of health-enhancing molecules, enzymes, proteins and hormones,` he said.