Nearly 500 paediatricians from the four southern states will attend a three-day conference on children's health, beginning in Kottayam, Kerala on October 18, 2002. The meet is a UNICEF-supported programme started in 1995 to promote breast feeding.

The main theme of the meet is 'Enable the Disabled'. Expert doctors from all over the country will present papers on this subject. How to bring a disabled person to the main stream of life will also be discussed in the conference, Dr Vinod Jacob Cherian, state president of Indian Academy of Paediatrics, said in a press communiqué.

Other topics to be discussed include family life education, relevance of sex education and baby friendly state. This year Kerala is being declared as the first baby friendly state in the world.