Children Threatened By Malnutrition

About 400,000 Nigerian children die of malnutrition yearly

With 1.7 million children severely malnourished and about 1,000 dying every day in Nigeria due to the menace, Martins Ifijeh writes on why the government, health bodies, parents and the society must give priority to eradicating the scourge from the country.

The Nigerian government may not be at war at the moment, safe for the fight to defeat Boko Haram, as that has been in the front burner for the present government. But the Nigerian child is at war with malnutrition and unfortunately, they are presently loosing the battle, as over 1.7 million infants and children under age five are severely malnourished and wasting away in the country.

A report last week by the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and the Federal Ministry of Health showed that about 1,000 children die everyday in the country due to malnutrition- related issues, which means almost 400,000 children die from malnourishment every year.

In a survey conducted in 2013, almost 30 percent of Nigerian children are underweight, while the ratio of those who are wasted or too thin for their height has risen from 11 per cent in 2003 to 18 per cent in 2013.

The survey also showed that up to one million Nigerian children under age five suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), while four out of five do not meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life.

Children, they say, are the responsibility of the parents and the society because of the illumination they bring and the hope of a sustained future they resonate among adults and the society in general. And hence the responsibility to protect them from things that deems the illumination and hope seen through them.

It is in this regard that experts are saying that malnutrition and its related issues must be tackled head on, and that government, health bodies, parents and well meaning Nigerians must come to the aid of saving the Nigerian child.

According to a public health physician, Dr. Marcus Obasohan, issues of nutrition can be tackled from long term perspective involving tackling the root cause, and the short term perspective which involves having to identify malnourished persons and treating them adequately.

He stated that tackling the root cause means tackling poverty, insecurity, general re-orientation of the society on breast feeding and then how to adequately take care of new borns.

He said: “Despite being the largest economy in Africa, a lot of Nigerians are still living below poverty line and are unable to feed themselves and their children. How would such families take care of their children. The high poverty rate in the country is why the number of children affected by malnutrition is high. This new government should make eradication of poverty one of its cardinal priority,” he added.

On issues of insecurity, Obasohan said the bulk of children affected by the menace were from the north, a region currently affected by heinous activities of Boko Haram. “Most villages affected by insurgency have seen residents flee their homes and abandoning their farmlands to live in places where they can neither farm nor work, thereby increasing their poverty level and their inability to provide food for themselves and their children,” he said.

He said the government should niche it in the bud by bringing lasting peace to the region, and also commence rehabilitation of displaced persons.

“Now that President Buhari has given a deadline for peace to return, we pray it truly returns, because insecurity has greatly affected nutritional status of the people in that region, especially children,” he added.

On the short term perspective, Obasohan said it was necessary that affected children be taken to healthcare centres where acute malnutrition was being treated, so that treatment, including therapeutic food can be given to the malnourished children.

He called on government to identify such children across the country and set up programmes for their rehabilitation and care.

According to experts, malnutrition is a condition that occurs when people consistently do not consume or ingest the right amounts and types of food and essential ingredients in order to get the required nutrients for the body. 

A Nutritionist, Mrs. Faith Olaoluwa, in a chat with THISDAY, explained that malnutrition was one of the biggest killers of children, as it not only wastes their muscles which makes them underweight and thin, but also weakens their immune system, thereby causing preventable diseases and infections to thrive in the body.

She said apart from the fact that malnutrition causes high rate of death, it also causes stunted growth in children, diminishes their immune system, causes lack of cognitive ability to learn fast, among others.

“Pregnant mothers should also eat well nourished food so that they don’t give birth to underweight children.” Adding, she said, “underweight children or stunted growth also causes the brain to be underdeveloped, which on the long run would make such children to not add to the development of the society when they eventually grow up,” she noted.

Olaoluwa called on mothers to feed their children with exclusive breast milk for the recommended period of at least six months, has been proven to give aid to the growth and mental capacity of children.

She noted that a lot of new borns and infants in the country were not receiving the standard diet which was abundant in breast feeding. “Breast milk contains hormones, all nutrients needed for the ideal growth of children as well as antibodies that help wade off infections and diseases,” she said.

She explained that if the country’s population continue to rise while economy continue to dwindle, the issue of malnutrition will continue to resonate in the country. “People should also understand the times and then prune down on the number of children they give birth to. They should be able to match number of children with their income since feeding a child adequately or not would most likely depend on how much of such food the parents can afford.

“It is sad that we see parents whose income can not cater for a family of four, but would rather have over eight children. How can such family afford proper and balanced diets for their children and themselves?” She queried.

She also stressed that the problem of malnutrition was not limited to parents alone, adding that the government, organisations and health bodies must make eradication of the scourge a priority in the country through deliberate policies that targets children’s health and general nutrition.

She called on the government to give priority to the welfare of children, as they are the future of the country.

Meanwhile, UNICEF and the Federal Government has stated during their joint press conference last week that they have reached more than a million Nigerian children with a highly successful and cost-effective treatment for acutely malnourished children, saving over 200,000 lives in the past six years.

They said one of the efforts to eradicate malnutrition in the country was the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM), which was piloted in Gombe and Kebbi States in 2009 and has now been introduced in 11 northern Nigerian states where malnutrition poses the greatest threat.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute, said the government was committed to reaching more children with CMAM. “We cannot accept to see Nigerian children continue to die of malnutrition and that our potential future leaders should be diminished by its effects,” he added.