Publications

Globally, breast milk has been described as the gold standard of infant feeding. It provides complete nutrients forinfant and childhood development. In 2002, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World health organizationjointly came up with a global policy for infant and young child feeding. This policy emphasized breastfeeding as anirreplaceable practice of providing infants with the ideal nutrients for optimal growth and development. This studytherefore looked into the motivating factors as well as challenges of exclusive breastfeeding. The paper identifiedthe benefits to the child, mother and community, and further highlighted the challenges of exclusive breastfeeding.The study concluded that a lot more needs to be done to scale up exclusive breastfeeding among mothers as theyare challenged with numerous problems. It recommended among others, the need for exclusive breastfeedingprogramme interventions to be directed at increasing uptake with emphasis on the benefits of exclusive breastfeedingas well as correct misconceptions about the practice. Also, dissemination programme interventions on the awarenessand benefits of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers at the community level should involve important key playerssuch as community leaders, husbands, mother in-laws and grandmothers as they often influence in the decision of amother to exclusively breastfeed.