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World Health Day 2005: Make Every Mother and Child Count
The International Association of Infant Food Manufacturers (IFM ), member of ISDI, applauds the World Health Organization’s initiative to ‘Make Every Mother and Child Count’ as the focus of World Health Day this year.
IFM member companies embrace a common purpose: to protect and promote the health of all infants and young children, including those with special dietary problems. The infant food industry’s focus on nutrition makes an important contribution to public health. It truly supports WHO’s specific health theme to make every child and mother count. It additionally supports The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which established adequate nutrition as a crucial, universally recognized component of the child’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. We carry out beneficial activities for every infant and young child such as:
Supporting the protection and promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. We acknowledge that breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants and support this recommendation to populations as referenced in WHO’s Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Nutrition. We do so by widely by stating “breast is best” on all infant formula packaging, by noting its benefits as part of our educational efforts, and by supporting the aim of the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
Providing appropriate nutrition for non-breastfed infants so they too enjoy the best start in life. Some mothers are unable, or choose not to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months. In these cases, the Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding recommends that these mothers should be supported in optimising the infant’s nutrition and recognizes infant formula as the only nutritionally safe alternative to breastfeeding. Formula represents a considerable improvement over traditional substitutes that may be nutritionally inadequate and unsafe, such as unmodified animal milk (from cows, goats or buffaloes) and various types of cereal gruel. When breast milk or breast-milk substitutes alone no longer satisfy an infant’s nutritional requirements, we also make available safe and appropriate complementary foods for introduction into the diet. These foods are calorie-dense and enriched with micronutrients to ensure they are nutritionally adequate.
Researching and developing better nutritional products aimed at helping infants and young children to thrive. Through improved knowledge, formulas are now routinely enriched with certain nutrients, such as vitamins A and D, iron and zinc, which are essential for infant health. To meet the specific nutritional requirements of sick infants who are suffering from disease, metabolic disorders, taste alteration or food aversion, swallowing problems, protracted periods of diarrhoea or malabsorption, we have developed specialised formulas for use as part of a therapeutic diet.
Facilitating transfer of knowledge by providing information and education to health workers, thereby allowing them to instruct parents and caregivers on safe and adequate nutrition for infants and young children. We establish research foundations, and support continuing education programmes, professional organizations, medical congresses and student scholarships to help advance local expertise.
IFM member companies continually work to improve the nutritional status, growth and development, health, and thus the survival of infants and young children. We are proud to be part of the solution and will continue to work in partnership with relevant stakeholders to contribute towards a healthier and more productive society. IFM hereby reaffirms its support for WHO’s objectives, as well as those of the UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly Target 4 aimed a reducing the under-five child mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.
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