Mr Samuel Atuahene Antwi, Nutrition Officer, Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate has urged mothers to introduce family foods to children after six months of breastfeeding. He said mothers, however, needed to moderate the content of pepper, salt, and spices and after six months of exclusive breastfeeding, babies could eat foods including banku with soup, fufu with soup, waakye, rice with stew, beans, and a lot more. Mr Atuahene Antwi stated at the weekly ‘Your Health! Our Concern! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting communication on health-related and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy. He explained that appropriate infant feeding practices were critical to a child’s growth, health, and development during their early stages of life. The Nutritionist said family foods had lots of health benefits for the children and they were usually able to consume more of the family foods essential for their growth. He however advised parents to introduce the foods one at a time to be able to detect which of the foods the child would be able to consume more adding that the step-by-step introduction of the foods was also to ensure that the child got various nutritional values without remaining on a particular food. ‘Being a mother is not for lazy people because at times you cook food and the child will not take even one bite and you have to go and prepare another one. If you are the type that cooking is a problem for you, then you must change you attitude as soon as you have the intention to give birth ,’ he said. Dr Derrick Darko, Medical Officer at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH) stated that it was abnormal to menstruate during pregnancy and cautioned pregnant women who experienced any sign of bleeding to report to health facilities. He said after testing positive for pregnancy, any heavy bleeding or bleeding that resembled menstruation could be signs of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and other serious complications as it was impossible for pregnant women to menstruate. Dr Darko said some spotting could occur during pregnancy as a result of some women having residual blood in their wombs during their mensuration days.
Source: Ghana News Agency