In Nigeria, only 30% of youngest children ages 6-23 months living with their mother are fed in accordance with Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices. The results indicate that male and female children and children in urban and rural areas are equally likely to be fed according to IYCF practices. Among the zones, the percentage of children fed according to IYCF practices ranges from 26% in NW to 37% in South.
There is some dated information on the ‘baby friendly’ initiative in Nigeria, there being 1,147 such designated hospitals in Nigeria in 2002 (Ogunlesi et al, 2005), which were limited to tertiary health facilities to which most women lack access. However, contact with a baby friendly hospital did confer an advantage in terms of appropriate breast feeding practices, being commencement of breast feeding within one hour of birth, lower rate of prelacteal feeding and higher rate of exclusive breast feeding for the first six months of life.
From the literature reviewed, there have been some pilot projects in the area of IYCF. There was the pilot USAID IYCF project since 2009 for orphans and vulnerable children and HIV/AIDS; the BASICSD ii ENA CAPA project: the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative mentioned above: and the safe motherhood projects.