69% of Kingdom’s children are breastfed

JEDDAH – The percentage of breastfeeding of Saudi children ages 6 months and less during the past year in 2016 was nearly 69 percent. Najran recorded the highest percentage ratios of breastfeeding 85 percent, while the Eastern Province was the highest in depending on the formula by 18 percent. Statistical documents issued by the General Administration of Statistics on “The percentage of Saudi children by breastfeeding type for less than 6 months in the various regions of the Kingdom,” explained over the past year in 2016 that “feeding naturally of the children rose to 69 percent.” The documents added that “the region of Najran came at the top of areas dependent on breastfeeding children with 85 percent, followed by Madinah area with 84 percent, while the Makkah region came third with 81 percent and Hail recorded 41 percent.” Documents demonstrated that “artificial feeding occupies 7 percent of the feeding methods, and the Eastern Province is the area most dependent on them for their children at 18 percent, followed by the Baha area by 16 percent, while Tabuk came third with 15 percent, and the Northern Border area are the least in depending on powdered formula lactation with 2 percent. Statistical figures indicated that “some parents rely on feeding, whether natural or artificial, and that children who belong to this category were 24 percent during the past year in 2016. Hail region recorded 52 percent as the highest depending on this kind of feeding, while Riyadh came second with 36 percent while 34 percent were recorded in the northern border area, while the lower regions was Tabuk with 7 percent.” Pediatrics consultant Dr. Khalid Chaouki said that “the most prominent reasons for the high proportion of artificial feeding is weak physical structure of the mother, which leads to lack of secretion of milk in quantities sufficient to the baby, or that the milk is weak, which doesn’t benefit the child. In addition to sometimes mothers being busy with work, which increases dependence on industrial powdered milk powder,” stressing that the industrial milk, whatever its components, cannot match up to the features and benefits of breast milk.