Dr. Bamidele Iwalokun, a medical researcher, said on Wednesday that exclusive breastfeeding of babies for six months could prevent them from developing cancer later in life.
Iwalokun of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
He said that children denied of exclusive breastfeeding in their first six months were prone to developing cancer.
He said: “A child that is deprived of lactalbumin in the breast milk is prone to developing cancer.
“Studies have shown that lactalbumin is an anti-cancer agent and you can only benefit that from your mother.
“So, we are having problems of cancer now.
“Go and check the profile of people having cancer whether they were exclusively breastfed for six months.
“These days our children are not exclusively breastfed and it is impacting negatively in so many areas.
“The prevalence rate of children less than or equal to six months that are exclusively breastfed is less than 17 per cent.
“That is, out of every 100 nursing mothers, between 15 and 17 will breastfeed their children exclusively.
“And there is no better substitute than the breast milk for a child in the first six months of life.
“There is no infant formula that is better than breast milk because in the breast milk you have antibodies that will help defenceless infants to fight the war against diseases that challenge their lives.”
Iwalokun also told NAN that breast milk was the most complete form of nutrition for infants’ health, immunity and development.
He said that this could not be adequately replaced by any other food, including infant formulae.
The researcher said that breast milk contained lactalbumin, an anti-cancer agent, which helps to prevent the development of cancer later in life.
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