BANGUED, Abra, Nov. 26 (PIA) -- The National Center for Disease Prevention and Control of the Department of Health – Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) had adopted the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Program to prevent child mortality and morbidity.
In a seminar-orientation conducted by the DOH-CHD, the municipal health nurses in the province were taught of the guiding principles, methodologies and strategies of implementing the IYCF Program to be able to follow the use of the new standard of weight measurement to determine the nutritional status of every child.
The new standards of weight measurement takes into consideration other factors of determining the nutritional status of a child like the weight plus the height or length of the child, and not simply limited to the weight alone.
The IYCF Program was designed to contribute to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals 1, 4 and 5 to reduce child and infant mortality and morbidity particularly to insure and accelerate the promotion and protection of infants and young children aged zero to five years old.
While the government has existing laws and policies that support the IYCF, the feeding practices for the infants and young children remains poor to fair based on the rating given by the World Health Organization. Hence, the formulation and adoption of the first National IYCF to address problems of poor performance in improving the nutrition status and health of children especially those under-three years old, and consequently reduce mortality among infants and under-five years old children.
There are three pillars that support the key strategies and action points of the implementation of the IYCF namely; the capacity building of the local health service providers, the provision of supportive supervision for the local health providers, and a clear communication plan where all support groups will have to provide the needed information support.
Dr. Leona G. Berona, the provincial action officer of the Abra-Provincial Nutrition Council, said the APHO will ensure the provision of the needed support and supervision of the implementation of the IYCF in the province.(JDP/MTBB-PIA CAR,Abra
