Six Months Exclusive Breastfeeding Will Save 800,000 Children - Expert

          SIX months of exclusive breast-
feeding will save 800,000 under five children
from childhood killer diseases, expert has
disclosed.
Speaking at a two-day training for media
champions, organised by the Civil Society
Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, in
collaboration with Partnership for Advocacy
in Child and Family Health, PACFaH, in
Kaduna, the Programme Officer PSN, Abuja
office, David Akpotor, said saving 800,000
through breastfeeding will amount to 12
percent drop in
child mortality in the
country.
Akpotor explained that the training, which
was attended by 15 media organisations,
was aimed at advocating and demanding
accountability in child and family health
issues across PACFaH focal states of
Bauchi, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa,
Lagos, Oyo and Abuja.
According to him, the most recent Nigerian
Demographic Health Survey, NDHS, showed
that 128 children, in every 1,000 birth, die
before their fifth birthday.
He said pneumonia and diarrhoea accounts
for 14 percent and nine percent of under-
five mortality rate in the country,
respectively.