Newborn breastfeeding going out of fashion in Vietnam: survey http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8 <http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=30416> &newsid=30416 Breastfeeding of babies, especially those aged from one to six months, is falling sharply in Vietnam, the Reproductive Health Department warned Thursday. The proportion of newborns exclusively breastfed in their first month had fallen from over 82 percent in 1996 to just 31 percent now, a survey by the Institute of Nutrition had found, Dr Dinh Phuong Hoa, vice head of the department, said. Infants being nursed by their mother for the first six months had decreased to 12%. Bottle-feeding had dramatically increased, mainly because of the advertisement blitz by milk products and young mothers' ignorance. Breast milk was the best and ideal form of nutrition for newborns. Antibodies passed from a nursing mother to her baby helped protect the baby from infection by strengthening its immune system and reducing the growth of organisms like bacteria and viruses, lowered the occurrence of many conditions like ear and respiratory <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/common/otitis_media.html> infections, diarrhea, <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/allergies/allergy.html> allergies, <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/centers/asthma_center.html> asthma, <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/centers/diabetes_center.html> diabetes, <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/overweight_obesity .html> obesity, <http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/medical_problems/sids.ht ml> sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). (that's the complete item) Janice Reynolds *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html Mail all commands to [log in to unmask] To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask]) To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]