Promote Breastfeeding in China
Program on Improving Nutrition for China's Most Vulnerable Women and Children
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Ye Yan is a village doctor in Baizi Village, Wuding County, Yunnan. When her busy schedule allows, she visits new mothers to help them start breastfeeding their newborns and to give advice on vitamins and mineral supplementation for children above 6 months old. Compared with urban areas, remote and poor communities are still more affected by malnutrition. It is not uncommon to find infants over the age of 6 months receiving insufficient nutrition as a result of poor weaning practices.
Wuding County of Yunnan Province is one of China's poorest counties. About 15% of children between the age of 6 to 18 months here are suffering moderate malnutrition (underweight) or anemia. According to a 2009 UNICEF nutrition survey, China is home to 13 million of the world's 177 million "stunted" children, ranked closely after India. Most of these children are from poverty-stricken rural areas. To address nutritional problems, UNICEF is cooperating with the Chinese government to provide food supplements.
Ye Yan distributed Ying Yang Bao to 28 families with babies in the village from last November. She gave instruction on how to use Ying Yang Bao to mothers and families as well.
“We will carefully check if mothers make records on the booklets and if the babies eat them up. Many babies give good reactions and they like to eat it.”
Ying Yang Bao is specially produced in China for children between 6 and 24 months, containing a mixture of nine vitamins and minerals including Iron, Zinc, Calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin D and Folic Acid in a soybean-based powder. Some poor counties in Yunan, Shaanxi and Guizhou were chosen to carry out nutrition intervention. Families with newborns are provided with free daily supplements.
“In the last six months 50,000 kg of vitamin and mineral supplements were distributed, benefiting more than 2800 children aged between 6 to 24 months.”
Li Xiaoyan's daughter is 11 months old. Li fed her a mixture of Ying Yang Bao and breast milk since she was six months.
“In the past, my baby was getting sick all the time. But after I started giving her the supplements, her health improved, although she is now thinner than she was.”
The three-year “Program on Improving Nutrition for China's Most Vulnerable Women and Children” has been implemented in Yunnan, Shaanxi and Guizhou, benefiting about a population of 1.8 million. As a result of the project, communities receiving the Ying Yang Bao supplements saw a 30% decline of anemia in young children.
