While the rest of the world has been having substantial success in reducing mortality rates among small children, Belize has been struggling to keep pace with the rest of the Caribbean.
A press release from Belmopan, doctored to look like part of a UNICEF report from New York, provides the following information on child mortality rates for the year 2006:
Country - Deaths per mil
Barbados 14
Jamaica 20
Belize 24
Mexico 46
Guatemala 86
In developed countries the average is six deaths to every 1,000 live births.
The release states that child mortality in Belize is highest in Stann Creek and Toledo.
The UNICEF report blames malnutrition, poor hygiene, and limited access to health care for the high mortality rate among small children in Belize.
It notes that only one among every ten mothers today nurture their children with milk from their own breasts.
The Ministry of Health, alarmed by the disappointing report, says it will take measures to integrate the management of childhood illnesses and will work with UNESCO to encourage more mothers to breastfeed their children.
Other measures the Ministry of Health plans to take include providing better access to vaccines, programmes to reduce the transmission of HIV by parent to child, and implementing a sustained programme to increase the number of skilled midwives.
The Latin American and Caribbean regions are on track to achieve the child mortality millennium development goals, with an average of 27 child deaths for every thousand live births compared to 55 deaths per 1,000 back in 1990.
If more infants worldwide are given only mother’s milk and no food or formula until the age of six months, at least 1.3 million lives could be saved this year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said this week.
With more than 10 million children dying annually from mainly preventable causes like diarrhoea and pneumonia, the agency said that if every baby were exclusively breast fed for the first half-year of life, an estimated 3,500 lives could be saved each day.
UNICEF cited these statistics in calling for greater global commitment to support breastfeeding.
“If a child dies a preventable death it’s because mothers and infants are not getting the basic support they need,” said UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy.
Calling breastfeeding “the most natural act of mother and newborn,” she said the practice has not been properly supported considering that it holds the key for children to develop well in good health.
Breastmilk contains all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones, immune factors and antioxidants that an infant needs to thrive during the first six months of life. It also protects babies from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections while stimulating their immune systems.
In the first two months of life, an infant who is not exclusively breastfed, is up to 25 times more likely to die from diarrhoea and four times more likely to die from pneumonia than a non-breastfed baby, UNICEF said. Growth and development may stall and the child stands a greater risk of obesity, heart disease and gastro-intestinal problems in later years.
Despite this evidence, only 39 per cent of babies worldwide are being breastfed exclusively in the first six months, (only 10 percent in Belize) the agency said.
UNICEF helps governments to support breastfeeding, including through legislation to protect against formula companies that promote their products in such a way as to deter women from breastfeeding. Read More

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