Nutritionist Leonides Macabinguil, of the Zamboanga City Health Office, says they step up campaign to fight malnutrition in different villages. (Photo by Carlissa Horcerada – Mindanao Examiner)
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 13, 2012) – The Zamboanga City Health Office said it has taken steps to eradicate malnutrition and promote healthy living as part of its health care program.
Nutritionist Leonides Macabinguil, of the City Health Office, said they launched the “Operation Timbang,” an annual program where it conducts weighing of infants and children to determine whether they are healthy or not and provide them vitamin supplementation, among others.
She said the City Health Office also has its complimentary feeding program and continuous promotion and campaign on proper nutrition on different villages in Zamboanga.
Some of the villages in Zamboanga have been reported to have high prevalence of malnutrition and among them are Buenavista with 19.64 %, Vitali 18.89 %, Sanggali 15.84 %, Kasanyangan 14.91 %, Pasabolong 14.34 %, Tumitus 13.81 %,Manggusu 13.16 %, Calarian 10.61 %, Tigbalabag 10.40% and Muti 10.11 %.
Macabinguil said the main reason of malnutrition in Zamboanga is that many of the parents of children are unemployed and cannot sustain the needs of their family. But she said they are advocating breast feeding among mothers to sustain the nutrition needs of their children
“For all the mothers, we encourage them to breast feed their babies to give them all the nutrition they need and this is healthy practice for mothers too,” she told the Mindanao Examiner.
Zamboanga City has last week joined the Breastfeeding Awareness Month which is highlighted by breastfeeding counseling on different villages.
It also encourages bottle-feeding mothers to join the seminars on breast feeding to enlighten them on how essential it is for their child.
Breastfeeding is the natural and recommended way of feeding all infants, even when artificial feeding is affordable, clean water is available, and good hygienic conditions for preparing and feeding infant formula exist.
The City Health Office of Zamboanga encourages every mother – young and old, and first timers to start and continue on breast feeding their child instead on switching to formula milk. It said breast milk is still the number one source of primary nutrients for infants and children below 2 years old alike. (Joy Marie Soler and Carlissa Horcerada – Mindanao Examiner)
20