Indigenous first feeding practices in newborn babies
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1Department of Cultural Anthropology/Faculty of Sociology, State University of Leiden, The Netherlands.
Objective:
To describe the common practices in indigenous first feeding of the newborn babies in countries of the continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Methods:
Anthropological, medical and nursing publications were searched for indigenous customs and beliefs concerning the first feed given to newborn babies.
Findings:
From a nutritional point of view the first food is just symbolic but it has a function in either purifying and clearing the 'dirty' throat and bowel or to prepare the baby for adult life.
Conclusions:
The general withholding of colostrum should be abandoned and the indigenously strange custom of feeding water with sugar should be discouraged.
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