By Ani Grigoryan

73 year-old Seda Soghoyan swears that breast feeding is the best way to ensure that children grow up healthy.

Mrs. Soghoyan should know. She raised seven kids herself and says she breastfed them up till the age of three.

“I never had the need to take any of my kids to the doctor. My breast milk was all they needed to grow up healthy. I never fed them any type of special diet. They ate what I ate. If a mother breast feeds her children till the age of two or three, she won’t have to feed them anything special afterwards,” says Mrs. Soghoyan, a resident of Zolakar, a village in Gegharkouniq.

She’s advised her children to do the same with their kids.

“All the stuff nowadays is artificial and I would never substitute it for nutritious mother’s milk. But a breast feeding mom must eat a well balanced menu in order for her body to produce nutritious milk. Our traditional village fare - the soups, harissa, dolmas - are just what the doctor ordered. Why would anyone substitute them with the chemical laden stuff now being sold?”

Mrs. Soghoyan believes that mothers of today find it difficult to breast feed because so many additives are introduced to fruits and vegetables before reaching stores and markets.

She also believes in the importance of being physically active and points out that the new generation are too sedentary and shy away from good honest labor.

The mother of seven argues that a modicum of physical activity is also beneficial for pregnant mothers.

As to how children should be reared, Mrs. Soghoyan advises mothers to be caring and compassionate as well as providing direction and guidance.

“In my day, I got my kids involved in all the work I had to do. I had the ladle in one hand and the cradle in the other.”

(Ani Grigoryan is a fourth year student at Yerevan state University’s Faculty of Journalism)