Dr. Hilda Mantebea Boye of the Pediatric Society of Ghana has advised lactating mothers to avoid adding salt, sugar and honey when feeding their babies after six months of breastfeeding.
She said this will harm the baby drastically because their kidneys were not developed enough during the early stages of their growth.
According to her, breast milk contains some level of sugar and the body is able to dissolve sugar from any food babies take in.
“With infants we do not encourage you to add salt to their food or to add sugar to their food. Their kidney is not developed and they are not able to handle all the load that the additional salt is going to put in the kidney. They don’t need sugar. The breast milk also has sugar and whatever food they take, the body is able to take out sugar and salt that they need. The same as honey”.
She asserted that taking in honey will expose babies to infant botulism, germs which can make them sick.
“For infants, we do not recommend you to add honey to the food because it causes them to have something we call infant Botulism because the honey can be contaminated by a germ that can cause them to be sick”.
Speaking with Kafui Dey on the GTV Breakfast Show, Dr. Boye added that an infant is someone below the age of one.
“Infancy begins from birth so under that is an infant. Under the age of one, we have a newborn which is up to 28days of life and after that you are an infant. Within the first six months of life, the world health organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the newborn, because it has everything the baby needs within the first six months of life”.
She opined that infants can start taking soft foods after six months of exclusive breastfeeding.
“Once a baby gets to six months, the literature and the information we have is that breast milk is not enough. When the baby turns 6months, you need to add on other things. This period, family foods can be given to the baby. Anything eaten in the house the baby can take. It has to be soft enough”.
She encouraged lactating mothers to breastfeed their babies at least 10 times a day.
“Within the 24hour period, we want the baby to be fed 10times. That comes to two or three hourly. Every two to three hours, babies should be fed”, she explained.
