Breastfeeding Quote of the Day: Poverty
August 11, 2007 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding, quotes and literature
This breastfeeding quote comes to us from the late James P. Grant, past Executive Director of UNICEF:
Breastfeeding is a natural safety net against the worst effects of poverty. If a child survives the first month of life, the most dangerous period of childhood, then for the next 4 months or so, exclusive breastfeeding goes a long way towards cancelling out the health difference between being born into poverty or being born into affluence. It is almost as if breastfeeding takes the infant out of poverty for those few vital months in order to give the child a fairer start in life and compensate for the injustices of the world into which it was born.
I have been volunteering with MANNA Food Bank in my local community in North Carolina and it has made me acutely aware of the importance of nutrition for our nation’s children and its effects on health, education, and well-being later in life. As your article states, breastfeeding provides the best nutrition possible for a young child and can help cancel out those negative effects of hunger in those early years. Thanks for bringing up the topic.