Mother's milk best for all little miracles

Looks like the milk scare is refusing to die. As if the melamine-contaminated milk scandal hadn't extracted a big enough health and mental price, dozens of kids have fallen ill after taking "melamine-free" milk food. The melamine-contamination scare, too, began with a small number of cases before it claimed six infants' lives and left about 300,000 with various urinary tract ailments, including kidney stones. But let's hope the cases won't multiply in geometric progression this time.

Hope cannot be a solution to the problem, though. Parents have to find a way of keeping their newborns safe and healthy. And surprisingly, they don't need the help of governments or baby milk food companies for that. Nature solved that problem even before the first human child was born: mother's milk. But we, especially the literate, urban, "forward-looking" section of society, have foolishly chosen to forget that simple fact of life. And that's not a small price to pay for our blind rush to adapt to the so-called modern (or is it postmodern) lifestyle.

Innumerous studies have shown there's no substitute for mother's milk. UNICEF made it one of its most potent campaigns to fight ailments among young children long ago. Mother's milk provides indisputable health benefits, as research shows breastfed infants have improved general health, growth and development, and a lower risk of many acute and chronic illnesses than bottle-fed infants. Scientists say babies who are breastfed are less prone to obesity - the bane of modern society across the developed and many developing nations. What's more, breastfeeding develops a stronger emotional bond between mother and child.