title: Indigenous first feeding practices in newborn babies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the common practices in indigenous first feeding of the newborn babies in countries of the continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anthropological, medical and nursing publications were searched for indigenous customs and beliefs concerning the first feed given to newborn babies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From a nutritional point of view the first food is just symbolic but it has a function in either purifying and clearing the 'dirty' throat and bowel or to prepare the baby for adult life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The general withholding of colostrum should be abandoned and the indigenously strange custom of feeding water with sugar should be discouraged.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cultural Anthropology/Faculty of Sociology, State University of Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lefèber
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Voorhoeve
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa; D001208:Asia; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000208:ethnology*; D003126:Colostrum; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007224:Infant Care / Q000379:methods*; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007843:Latin America; D008880:Midwifery / Q000379:methods