Benin is making progress: A risky practice

Traditional liquid force-feeding (porridge, infusion) is a problem in newborns and infants. Children are usually force-fed from three months, sometimes before, and up to two years in some cases. The immediate consequence is very serious for children.

This practice is not new, say many parents. Sometimes due to ignorance of the danger it constitutes because, when the kids get away, we expect some parents to say "I'm never going to do that again". The practice is not always done wholeheartedly and many mothers are forced into it., at least in rural areas where tradition remains strong. It is quite widespread in Africa and we are practically all "survivors". The virtues of force-feeding and the methods of execution are clearly exposed by some mothers ; they are many, dictated by tradition, ancestors and transmitted to mothers by their parents, mothers-in-law or close entourage.

From practice…

Force-feeding consists of making the child absorb, regularly and often by force, a large amount of liquid substance (porridge, infusion). Using a ladle cut from a calabash, the mother draws the porridge, pours it into the palm of her hand which she sticks near the child's mouth. To force him to swallow the porridge quickly, she pinches his nose intermittently. When she blocks the child's nose, this one is breathing hard, which forces her to open her mouth into which she pours the porridge despite the cough. The child struggles, scream, each time throwing up a good amount of porridge that spills over her body and her mother's hand. Force-feeding only lasts a few minutes and when it's over, the child seems relieved. The mother dresses her child after cleaning him.

What appears to be harmful for the child, it is the forced character of force-feeding, allowing the liquid to enter the respiratory tract voluntarily or not. It often leads to wrong roads. From our experience in the pediatric department, this immediate consequence is a road fault which causes distress (difficulty) severe and lethal respiratory illness in children, fluid passing through the airways instead of following the digestive track. Indeed, the airways are intended primarily for the inspiration and expiration of oxygen from a global point of view. Any foreign bodies in these pathways, causes irritation and increased respiratory rate followed by lung infection due to contact of the substance with the constituent parts of the lung. In infants, we conclude of an inhalation bronchopneumonia by traditional force-feeding through the circumstances of occurrence (after a force-feeding), rapid breathing with signs of struggle and on examination perceived sounds in the lungs. This situation generally leads to prolonged hospitalization if the child gets out of trouble, otherwise death is often frequent before the parents even arrive at the health center.. Sudden death by asphyxiation (true drowning) and burns of the perioral region complement the harmful effects of force-feeding.

An avoidable situation

The nursing staff, powerless, lives this situation with a lot of bitterness, because it is indeed an "avoidable" situation. Upstream, it is therefore necessary to make parents aware of the dangerous nature of this practice. To feed the child, you have to make him sit comfortably, give him the solution (porridge, infusion) with a spoon, taking the necessary time. It is important that mothers become aware of this situation so that we no longer witness this distressing spectacle in pediatric wards.. This awareness must extend to grandmothers, mothers-in-law carrying the popularization of traditions. We each have a role to play, already going through the information on the seriousness of the practice. We can simply expose the mechanisms of occurrence of respiratory accidents using notions of anatomy or physiology using panels, d’images; however, these explanations are already well understood by some force-feeding women. Note that the majority of mothers in rural areas admit to force-feeding their children ; only a few of them admit it when these children are hospitalized for respiratory infections. This means that they are not unaware of the disapproval of health workers in the face of this practice..

Doctor Sessi Elisee Kinkpe, General practitioner HZ Savalou/Bantè (Free Morning Source)