The Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital’s (ENRH) Public Health Unit, has organised a day’s durbar in the Adiembra community as part of the global Child Health Promotion Week to create awareness for parents and members of the community.
In attendance were staff from the Hospital’s Reproductive and Child Health Department made up of the Antenatal Clinic, Child Welfare Clinic and Family Planning Clinic, the Adolescence Health Department, Mental Health Department, and the Disease Control Department to education the community on various field of public health.
Dr Nana Esi Gaisie, Head of Public Health Unit at ENRH, in her keynote address said, the aim of the durbar was to empower the community and parents through various forms of health education to enhance their children’s health.
She explained that child registration at birth, exclusive breast feeding, weighing and child immunization processes were all encouraged by the hospital to ensure proper growth of the child.
The Head of the Public Health noted that children given breast milk exclusively from 0 to 6 months hardly got sick.
She revealed that conditions such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, allergies, coughs, cold and skin diseases among others could be avoided with the right health care approaches including the foundation stage.
She added that breastmilk was healthy and sufficient for children from day one to six months adding, “Breast milk is fortified with all the nutrients to develop the child physically and mentally”, she said.
Dr Gaisie, encouraged mothers to also immunize their children saying, ” Some people do not believe in immunization, but it is very protective”, she said.
She said the world was working towards prevention to stop certain diseases to make the world a better place to live.
Madam Gloria Frimpong, the Chief Nutrition Officer at ENRH, who took the community through complementary child feeding, said after six months of exclusive breast feeding, parents could resort to the feeding of children with porridge and slightly heavy foods alongside the breast feeding till 2 years to ensure the proper growth of children.
She advised that the feeding tools used in feeding children should be kept in good hygienic conditions and encouraged mothers to avoid too much salt, sugar, pepper, and artificial spices when cooking for children under 2 years of age.
Adolescent presents were also encouraged to visit the hospital often and share whatever health problems they encountered.
They were encouraged to keep good menstrual hygiene to avoid menstrual reproductive related diseases.
Amidst the durbar was a health screening to check the blood pressure of the community members.
GNA
LAA
19 May 2024
