Bangladesh's medical curricula is going to be updated with lessons of proper under-2 feeding practices in an effort to reinforce the battle against malnutrition.
With almost all health indicators showing the right move, the South-Asian country is still grappling to combat malnutrition, largely because of improper feeding practices, experts say.
The Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 showed only 21 percent families strictly follow the under-2 feeding practices in the country where 41 percent children show dwarfed growth and 36 percent remain underweight.
"Doctors need to learn proper feeding practices of under-2 so that they can advise appropriately to the parents," Prof Md Ekhlasur Rahman, Line Director of the National Nutrition Services (NNS), told bdnews24.com.
The government launched NNS in July 2011 giving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices one of the top priority interventions.
The Line Director said IYCF was not 'adequately' mentioned in the medical curriculum.
"We have already started the process of inserting its details in the curriculum," he said.
According to IYCF rules, a child has to be breastfed within first hours of birth and continue exclusively up to six months and given homemade food after six months while continuing with breastfeeding.
Starting homemade food before six months is early while it is very late if someone starts after one year.
"We cannot tell mothers what type of food they should offer after six months," said Dr Samiul Islam, a medical officer of Nangalkot Upazilla Health Complex, Comilla.
"Not even doctors will be able to give the correct advice of what type of food should be given after six months, unless trained up," he told bdnews24.com, "We could not learn it during our medical studies."
Prof Sameena Chowdhury, a member of Obstetrics and Gaynecology Society of Bangladesh, who is also involved on the updating process, said they were trying to identify the gaps in the curriculum.
Nutritionists recommend homemade food twice a day in half of a 250 ml bowl for the babies of seven to eight months.
It is thrice a day with the same amount for babies of nine to 11 months, and in full bowl (250ml) thrice a day for between 12 and 23 months.
"Early start of homemade food causes indigestion as the babies' intestines are not prepared to digest," said Prof Chowdhury.
"If delayed, it does not meet the nutritional requirements for growth."
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Police have raided several places in Chandpur to trace missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali.
However, there was no news of any breakthrough until 10pm Saturday.
Additional superintendent of Chandpur police Mohammad Amir Jafar told bdnews24.com: "We have information that an ambulance carrying Ilias Ali entered Chandpur from Comilla. We are searching various places ... he is yet to be recovered."
Police patrolling had been intensified in the district, he added.
The car of former MP and one of BNP's organising secretaries Ilias was found abandoned at Mohakhali near his Banani residence in the capital on April 18. Ilias and his driver Ansar Ali has been missing since then.
His family and the party have alleged that government's henchmen had picked up Ilias.
The party has already enforced three days of dawn-to-dusk general strike and announced to observe another round of two-day hartal on Sunday and Monday in protest against his disappearance.
The forest department on Friday seized 155 turtles smuggled in fruit baskets to Bangladesh through Benapole border from India.
Chief forest conservator (wildlife and nature conservation circle) Tapan Kumar Dey told bdnews24.com 87 of the recovered turtles are Three Keeled Tortoise (Melanochelys tricarinata) and the rest 68 are Snail-eating Turtle (Melanochelys trijuga).
He said the baskets with the turtles were smuggled into Bangladesh on Thursday. Then they were taken to Continental Courier Service branch office at Jessore's Jum Jum area in a covered-van.
Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Jessore Battalion and forest department officials jointly raided the courier service office upon information on Friday morning and found the rare turtles in three baskets.
But the smugglers managed to flee the scene right before the raid, Dey said.
He said, "The turtles have been brought to forest department building (Ban Bhaban) in Dhaka immediately from Jessore."
Earlier on Apr 17, another consignment of smuggled turtles was apprehended at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Forest department officials suspect that both operations are work of the same smuggling syndicate.
Dey said, "They smuggle these rare turtles to Bangladesh from India and then send them to Thailand, Taiwan or China."
He also added that these Shila Turtle and Kali Kaitta species are also on the list of 'endangered' species in Bangladesh. They are mostly seen in adjacent hill tract areas of the rivers Ganges and Bhramaputtra.
The BNP-led 18-Party Alliance has called two consecutive shutdowns on Sunday and Monday as they say the government failed to 'return' missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali by the deadline given by the opposition.
The party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the new agitation programme at a press briefing at the party's Naya Paltan headquarters on Saturday.
"We will enforce dawn to dusk shutdowns on Sunday and Monday to protest the forced disappearance of Ilias Ali," he said.
"The government has failed to return Ilias and his driver Ansar to their families. They failed to return them by the deadline given by our party chief."
"That's why we are enforcing two consecutive shutdowns. Fresh protest programmes will be announced on Apr 30 after the shutdowns," Fakhrul added.
On Tuesday, BNP chief Khakeda Zia had given the government Saturday deadline to 'return' Ilias Ali or she had said they would go for tougher agitation.
BNP had enforced three consecutive countrywide shutdowns on Apr 22, 23 and 24 and a day-long shutdown at four Sylhet districts on Apr 20 on the same demand.
More than 20 vehicles were vandalised and set on fire in Dhaka only during the demonstrations. A driver of a bus was burnt alive in a pre-shutdown violence.
Three persons were killed in clashes at Ilias' home constituency, Bishwanath in Sylhet, between law enforcers and pro-shutdown activists.
BNP's one of the organising secretaries Ilias Ali, also the party's Sylhet chapter chief, and his driver Ansar Ali went missing since early hours of Apr 18. Police found his abandoned car and mobile phone at a street in the capital's Mohakhali area near his Banani residence.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had raided a number of residences in Pubail, Gazipur and Dhaka in its bid to find the missing BNP leader, but failed.
Khaleda Zia accused that 'government agency and RAB picked up Ilias'. However, prime minister Sheikh Hasina denied the accusations and alleged that the BNP was staging a 'drama'.