Health experts have expressed concerns over Nigeria’s slow progress in early and exclusive breastfeeding, urging stronger support systems, policies, and resources to help mothers breastfeed successfully.

Speaking during activities marking World Breastfeeding Week 2025, they warned that climate change is further threatening breastfeeding by disrupting food systems, worsening water scarcity, and increasing reliance on formula feeding, which has a higher carbon footprint.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), inadequate breastfeeding practices in Nigeria cause about 103,742 child deaths yearly, leading to nearly $12 billion (₦16.2 trillion) in future economic losses. Total yearly losses, including cognitive and healthcare costs, amount to $21 billion (₦28.35 trillion), around 4.1 per cent of the nation’s Gross National Income.

Chief of Child Nutrition and Development at UNICEF, Nemat Hajeebhoy, noted that national data shows early initiation of breastfeeding has dropped from 42 per cent in 2018 to 23 per cent in 2021, while exclusive breastfeeding rates have stagnated at 29 per cent for the past five years. Continued breastfeeding at two years also fell from 28 per cent to 23 per cent over the same period.

She warned that during climate-related emergencies such as floods, droughts, and displacement, formula feeding becomes unsafe due to limited access to clean water, electricity, and supply chains. She called for integrating breastfeeding into climate adaptation and emergency response plans, creating breastfeeding-friendly emergency shelters, and enforcing restrictions on unethical formula marketing.

Describing breastfeeding as “nature’s most climate-smart food system,” Hajeebhoy said it produces zero waste, requires no packaging or transport, and has no environmental cost. By contrast, formula milk production generates millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases.

While Nigeria has policies such as the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Policy and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, Hajeebhoy said gaps in implementation, coordination, and sustainability persist. She urged the government to extend paid maternity leave to at least six months, enforce workplace breastfeeding facilities, increase budget allocations, and fully implement the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

Also speaking, Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, Dr Tessy Eziechila, described breastfeeding as the “bedrock of infant nutrition” with benefits for both mother and child, including protection against infections, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes later in life.

Cautioned that dehydration from high temperatures can reduce milk production and called for baby-friendly policies in the private sector, as well as increased public enlightenment to dispel myths and promote breastfeeding’s health and economic benefits.

Nigeria remains far from the World Health Organisation’s target of 70 per cent exclusive breastfeeding prevalence by 2030, both experts agreed, warning that without urgent action, recent gains could be reversed.