Nutrition department set to launch a lactating facility at Huduma Centre to encourage exclusive breastfeeding
By
Peter Kombe
The nutrition department in partnership with Mombasa
County is set to launch a lactating facility at Huduma Centre Mombasa county
geared towards enhancing exclusive breastfeeding among lactating mothers.
The facility which is currently operational is set
for a launch in early March.
According to Mombasa County Nutrition Coordinator
Esha Bakari the facility will ensure that working class mothers and the public breastfeed their infants exclusively.
“This facility is currently complete and in use. This
will enable breastfeeding mothers to lactate their babies. And this is meant
to ensure that mothers breastfeed their infants exclusively” she said
Speaking to the media in Mombasa on Friday the
nutritionist reiterated the county’s commitment towards delivering nutrition
services to the locals.
She says the county government has recruited a total
of 15 nutritionist serving in all the public health facilities
in Mombasa County.
“Currently we have a total of 15 nutritionist and our target 78 nutritionist” Ms.
Esha pointed out
The nutritionist also indicated that the nutrition
department receives a total of ksh 10 million from the county government.
She cited funds and staff inadequacy as some of the
challenges facing nutrition delivery within the county.
“That means we have no adequate staff. But this does
not bar us as a nutrition department to deliver our services to the locals” she
said
Rhoda Mbuvi, Nyali Sub-county nutritionist coordinator
urged lactating mothers to take in more fortified foods.
She says fortified foods have adequate nutrition supplements
beneficial to the infants.
“As a nutritionist I want to urge breastfeeding
mothers to consume more of the fortified foods. This is because they contain
all the supplements required by the baby” she stated
Ms Mbuvi says public health officers are responsible
for ensuring that all foodstuff found in both public and private business entities
meet the desired health standards.
Meanwhile Judy Scaling up Nutrition Civil society alliance
Programs Officer Judy Mboku says in partnership with Mombasa county government the
non state actor is set to launch kitchen gardens in various schools within Mombasa
County.
“We shall very soon launch a kitchen garden program some
of the schools in this county, so that we can promote nutrition intake in
schools” Judy said
She says the program will ensure that nutrition is
scaled up in primary schools thus inculcate a positive change to the pupils in
the said schools.
According to Judy the criteria used to identify the
schools include among others the presence of a water source at the school and
the general population of the school.
“We have used several criteria to select the schools
and these include the presence of water in the school and the population” she
noted.
We should all be aware that static health, the default setting you get for just existing and doing nothing special to enhance health, can and must be reinforced and boosted. healthy grocery list
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