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Only 8 percent of newly born are breast fed in Kuwait -- official

Assistant undersecretary for medical services Dr. Fatma Al-Najjar
Assistant undersecretary for medical services Dr. Fatma Al-Najjar

KUWAIT, Oct 5 (KUNA) -- Only eight percent of newly born babies are breast fed for six months in Kuwait, a Ministry of Health official disclosed on Wednesday.
Dr. Fatma Al-Najjar, an assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Health, said in remarks to KUNA that figures in the national nutrition monitoring report revealed that only eight percent of the infants get the natural feeding for six consecutive months in their infancy.
She was speaking on sidelines of a seminar organized by WHO Country Office in Kuwait, in cooperation with the Public Authority for Food and Nutrition (PAFN) and the Ministry of Health, regarding the initiative of appropriate hospitals for children.
The eight proportion is much lower than the rates in other regional countries as well as at the global level, Dr. Al-Najjar said, warning that babies must be fed solely with mothers' milk. She also revealed that only 20 percent of the babies born in Kuwait are hosted in "babies' friendly hospitals." There are only two of such hospitals in the country, she added. (pickup previous) mrf.aas.lb