Colostrum feeding practices worldwide: a review

There are millions of children in the world die every year before reaching the age of five due to malnutrition and infectious diseases and they are mostly from the developing countries like Somalia, Uganda, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tanzania, Ghana, India, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria etc. There is no doubt that infants are prone to infection due to their not fully developed immune system. Apposite food and nutrition during infancy are very essential for immediate and future health, physical growth, mental development and a healthy immune system. According to World Health Organization, breast milk is the ideal food for normal infant and they strongly recommend exclusive breast feeding for first six months of the normal infants instead of any prelacteals. Colostrum is the earliest and most immunologically protective secretion of the mammary glands, which is highly nutritious, easily digestible substance and acts also as natural vaccine against various health related threats in humans. Lots of evidence reported from all over the globe revealed that neonatal and post neonatal deaths were become lower among those infants who fed colostrums than those who were not. But there are much higher number of reported cases of colostrum avoidance due to various cultural beliefs and practices from communities and States of different countries. This paper is an attempt to review the scenario of colostrums avoidance in present day context based on available literatures.