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TODAY, there will be a special screening of the
feature titled “‘Formula for Disaster: Milk Code Violations in
the Philippines” followed by a panel discussion with experts at
the Manila Pavilion Hotel in Manila. This is in line with the
ongoing promotion of breastfeeding, organized by the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Public health experts from East
Asia and the Pacific are in Manila this week for a three-day
consultation to formulate strategies to promote a breastfeeding
culture in an attempt to reverse the bottle-feeding trend. The
consultation comes at an important time in the Philippines,
especially as the Department of Health is at a critical point in the
process of adopting the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations
of the National Milk Code, modeled on the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, which has been endorsed
globally.
Exclusive breastfeeding rates in
the region are 61 percent at four months of babies’ lives and 35
percent at six months (based on the WHO Global data bank on Infant
and Young Child Feeding). And yet, science has established exclusive
breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life as the
single best strategy for his/her survival, growth and development. 
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