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Tag: malnutrition

  • How malnutrition fuels childhood diseases, by experts

    How malnutrition fuels childhood diseases, by experts

    The sights are scary. The sight of children lying down on mats or cloth-beds spread on bare floors could strike terror in the hearts of many parents.

    Some are carried by their mothers, they hungrilly suck on dry breasts. The mothers too looked malnourished, having nothing left to eat. These are Nigerian Internally Displaced People (IDP).

    Hauwa Salah (not real names) is two years old. She got integrated in one of the camps, but could not get enough food. She became emaciatedand her skin clung to her dry, skinny bones. A  non governmental organisation, Adopt -A- Camp,an initiative that assists internally displaced persons in the Northeast,came to her rescue and a few others were provided with life saving nutritional needs. Now, she is bouncing back to life.

    Since May 2013, Nigeria has seen an intensification of conflict due to Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe. Insurgency and counter-insurgency have inevitably resulted in the displacement of people across the troubled states.

    Over 56 percent of the total IDP population are children of which more than half  are aged up to five years while 42 percent are adults. 1,188,018 IDPs (149,357 households) were identified in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states. (DTM) Another 47,276 IDPs (5910 households) were identified in Plateau, Nasarawa, Abuja, Kano and Kaduna states.  According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the total population of IDPs in northern Nigeria is 1,235,294. The highest number of IDPs however are in Borno state with 672,714, followed by Adamawa 220,159 and Yobe state with 135,810.

    According to statistics, in war and unrest, women and children are the most vulnerable groups and according to NEMA records, this group formed the bulk of the IDPs all over Nigeria.

     

    The war against Measles

     

    It is becoming increasingly difficult for Nigeria to win the war against measles.According to new scientific research, there is an important link between nutrition and the prevention and management of diseases.

    According to a foremost virologist, Prof Oyewale Tomori, young children (six to 60 months of age) with mild-to-moderate malnutrition had 2.2 times the risk of dying from measles during the follow-up period than their better nourished counterparts.

    Severely malnourished children had 6.8 times the risk of dying during the follow-up period than better nourished children.”Therefore, since measles is a very severe disease, which in malnourished children can carry a case fatality rate as high as 50 percent, malnutrition should be a prime indication for measles immunization, and certainly not a contraindication,” he argued.

    Prof Tomori’s concern is justified because the coalition of experts from Federal and State Governments, development partners, civil society and academia after concluding a two-day meeting to discuss the results of research on activities carried out by the Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN) programme in the states of Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Yobe, and Zamfara, also announced the urgent need to address the root causes of child malnutrition in this region.  According to WINNN, this is germane to reducing the staggeringly high rate of child malnutrition in northern Nigeria, nay the childhood diseases, especially measles.

    WINNN has more scary statistics. As a result of malnutrition, 58 per cent of children under five in these states suffer from stunting, meaning their physical and mental development has been impaired. An estimated 370,000 children with severe acute malnutrition in these states will require lifesaving treatment this year. Without such treatment, some 70,000 of those children are likely to die.

    While treatment for severe malnutrition remains essential and has been the focus of State Governments’ activities, the participants at the WINNN meeting said increased attention should be paid to prevention, which is critical to addressing the problem in the long term. Research presented at the meeting confirmed that many mothers do not understand the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, even when healthy and even giving water to a baby under six months old can lead to illnesses and malnutrition.

    A researcher/microbiologist at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Dr  Adesina Adeiga, said children with severe malnutrition will be highly susceptible to diseases especially measles. He explained: “Cells in the body need protein to develop and perform body activities. Due to less protein intake, the white blood cells will be poorly developed and will not be able to defend the body. This makes the immunity both at the cellular level and the soluble antibody to be highly compromised. This makes the children in this nutritional compromised situation to be susceptible to diseases and when they are not able to withstand the disease, they die in the process.”

    He however explained that Measles infection is vaccine preventable, “When children are immunised at nine months, they are protected from infection. This can only happen when they are not nutritionally compromised.

    “When there is poor nutrition or  problem of protein calorie malnutrition, they will not be able to develop immunity when vaccinated. When there are many of such children in the community, most of them will be infected in measles outbreak. But if many of the children develop immunity upon receiving measles vaccination, the unvaccinated children in such community will not be seriously affected in Measles outbreak unless the vaccine is of poor quality,” he stated.

    Immunization: Measles (% of children ages 12-23 months) in Nigeria was last measured at 51 in 2014, according to the World Bank. Child immunization measures the percentage of children ages 12-23 months who received vaccinations before 12 months or at any time before the survey. A child is considered adequately immunized against measles after receiving one dose of vaccine.

    “Immunity of the children in the community is called Herd Immunity. When there is high herd immunity, the spread of measles during outbreak is very low. But if the herd immunity is low, which can occur when there is severe malnutrition. This can cause mass death of children from measles infection,” Adeiga said.

    Mrs Bukola Shonibare of Adopt-A-Camp is of the opinion that a child can win the war against malnutrition, nay any childhood disease, as evidence by the output of her NGO activities that saw some of these malnourished children bounce back, after feeding them adequately.

    One wonders where all the money budgeted for such have gone. For a study by Displacement Tracking Matrix/DTM Round II Report (February 2015) revealed that households in 20 states have access to food distribution. In terms of frequency, 13 sites receive food distribution every day; another 13 sites receive irregular food distribution. In three sites (all located in Adamawa) individuals have never received food distribution. Households in all sites with the exception of one reported having no supplementary feeding for children or breastfeeding mothers. Screening for malnutrition has not been conducted in 27 sites.

    This does not sit well with Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN).

    CS-SUNN believes without good nutrition, human mind and body cannot function well. Malnourished children have an increased risk of disability and premature death and are highly predisposed to infectious diseases.

    It explained that nutrition programs and interventions are still largely under funded by government at all levels.

    “Hence strategic actions needs to be taken to reduce malnutrition, the window of opportunity is the first 1000 days of life- a critical time for physical and mental development of a child. By making extra effort through investing in maternal nutrition, Infant and young child feeding (MIYCF), Nigeria can stop the death of about 700000 children every year, and mitigate human pain of families that lose their children,” it stated.

  • ‘70,000 children may die of malnutrition’

    •’Over half of children in Kastina, Kebbi, Jigawa Yobe, Zamfara need treatment’

    No fewer than 70, 000 children may die of malnutrition, according to a report by the Working to improve nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN).

    It said about 370,000 children with acute malnutrition in Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara states would require life-saving treatment this year.

    It said 58 per cent of children below five years in these states are suffering from stunting.

    WINNN consists of experts from federal and state governments drawn from Ministries of Heealth, development partners, civil society organisation and the academia.

    At a meeting to discuss the results of its research, the group advised that  the causes of child malnutrition be addressed to reduce the high rate of child malnutrition in the North.

    It noted that treatment for severe malnutrition remained the focus, demanding that states increased attention be given to prevention, which is critical to addressing the problem.

    The research confirmed that many mothers do not understand the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, pointing out that giving water to a baby under six months could lead to illnesses and malnutrition.

    The experts recommended increasing activities to prevent malnutrition, such as encouraging women to attend health facilities for antenatal and postnatal care, where they could be given guidance on how to best feed their children, especially the most vulnerable children who are under two years.

    The group urged husbands, families and community members, including traditional and religious leaders to support women to breastfeed exclusively and to feed children under two years old.

    Communities should be educated about problems of harmful traditional feeding practices that could reduce an infant’s growth and development, and messages on good feeding practices should be carried on the radio, the experts agreed.

    The experts recommended that more effort should be put into preventing malnutrition, involving coordination with ministries of health, agriculture, women’s affairs and social development, and water resources.

    They also called for greater training and deployment of health workers.

    Lauding the increase in state and Federal Governments’and partners’commitment to resolve the problem of child malnutrition over the past several years, as well as the more than $47.9 million investment by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) in the WINNN programme since its inception in 2011, the participants highlighted the need for stakeholders to invest more.

    They called on the government to provide greater leadership, better coordination and increased funding to scale up the lessons learned from the WINNN programme, providing sustained action to improve the nutrition, health and future prospects of women, adolescent girls and children in northern Nigeria.

    The WINNN programme, implemented by the Federal Government with support from UNICEF, Save the Children and Action Against Hunger, is funded by DFID and works in three local government areas in each of the five states.

  • Stakeholders tackle malnutrition at Lagos talks

    Stakeholders tackle malnutrition at Lagos talks

    No fewer than four groups gathered at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) last Thursday,  to address rising  malnutrition in Lagos State.

    State Nutrition Officer, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mrs Olubunmi Ibrahim, said nutrition affects all stages of the life cycle from pregnancy to when a baby is born up to adulthood.

    According to her, 55 per cent of child mortality is associated with malnutrition, adding: “If not addressed, malnutrition is transmitted from generation to generation.”

    Ibrahim, who spoke on the adoption and implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action For Nutrition (NSPAN), said the objective is to build upon the framework outlined in the National Food and Nutrition Policy to improve the nutritional status.

    She said: “NSPAN aims at promoting the delivery of effective interventions that will ensure adequate nutrition to all Nigerians, especially vulnerable groups.”

    Representative of United Nations International Child Fund (UNICEF) and Nutrition Specialist, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, advised expectant mothers to take enough nutrients for the development of the baby.

    “The window of opportunity to address malnutrition is the first two years of life. Children who are malnourished during this period lose 11 centimetre of potential height,” she said.

    Malnutrition, she said, does not concern only the poor, adding that even the children of the well-to-do are malnourished.

    “Malnutrition is not about being wealthy or poor. Children of the rich also get malnourished. This is often due to lack of time for the parent to monitor their children to consume the appropriate nutrients,” she said.

    Ezeogu said when breastfeeding and complementary feeding fail, it means the mothers have malnourished their children.

    Coordinator, Local Working Group (LWG), Dr Modupe Akinyinka said the first 1000 days from when the mother is pregnant to the second birthday of the child determines the child’s growth.

    She said: “Two out of every three infants and children are not being fed appropriately. Mothers should exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months without adding anything, then after six months, complementary foods can be added.”

    Malnutrition, she said, is a national problem and finding solution should be a shared responsibility.

    Akinyinka said according to a research done in 1994, seven per cent of children are exclusively breast fed in Nigeria and Ghana. “A research done in 2013 shows that 63 per cent of Ghanaian children are now exclusively breastfed while just 17 per cent of Nigerian children are breast fed appropriately,” she noted.

    Project officer, Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition Nigeria (CS-SUNN), a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), Okoronkwo Sunday said malnutrition is a silent crisis because it can happen around us without being aware.

    He said: “Nigeria has attempted to address the issue of malnutrition by developing a NSPAN which has been reviewed but is yet to be endorsed and a multi-sectoral nutrition partners platform to drive and coordinate action.

    “However, low public funding for nutrition and a challenging federalised system of government are considerable challenges,” he added.

    Sunday affirmed that the NGO is advocating for the implementation of the NSPAN at the national, state and local government levels.

  • Malnutrition: Silently killing Nigerian children

    Malnutrition: Silently killing Nigerian children

    Over a million Nigerian children are malnourished while many die every day according to UNICEF 2014 report. Sina Fadare, Assistant Editor, who recently visited one of the Nutrition and Community Management of Acute Malnutrition, (CMAN) Centre in Kano, reports.

    Perhaps the case of the Nigerian child against malnutrition can be likened to a paradox of staying in the middle of a sea, yet no water to drink. If a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa could afford to approve N9 billion to provide ordinary environmentally friendly stove to be distributed throughout the country by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, yet could not afford adequate resources to cater for her children who are dying in droves like due to acute malnutrition, something definitely went wrong somewhere.

    In other climes, children between birth and five years of age are cared for like a delicate egg that requires attention, otherwise it got broken. All medical expenses which include good dietary system are taken care of by the government in order to aid their development so that all their potentials will be developed to full capacity. Unfortunately the case is opposite in the country.

    The recent data released by the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that over one million Nigerian children between the ages of birth to five years are malnourished while many died everyday due to acute malnutrition.

    This mind boggling figure equally revealed that this made the country the second largest contributor to the under five and maternal mortality due to acute malnutrition in the  world.

    According to the UNICEF head of nutrition, Arjan de Wagt, “There are approximately 1.7 million severely acutely malnourished children under five in Nigeria, accounting for a tenth of the global total. Nearly a thousand Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every day  a total of 361,000 each year. Acute malnutrition also leads to stunting of children causing life-long physical limitations and can reduce intellectual capacity.”

    According to him, rates of stunting in Nigeria have stagnated for more than a decade, adding that about two in five Nigerian children are stunted, with rates of stunting varying throughout the country and almost 30 percent of Nigerian children are underweight, meaning they don’t weigh enough for their age, “This is more than double the proportion of neighbouring Ghanaian children who are underweight.”

     Perhaps irked by the precarious situation, the Nigerian children are passing through in the hands of malnutrition, UNICEF recently organized a two day media dialogue with journalists in Kano.

    The UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough also said: “Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) was piloted in Gombe and Kebbi States in 2009 and has now been introduced in 11 northern states where malnutrition poses the greatest threat. CMAM treats acutely malnourished children from six months to five years old on an out-patient basis.

    “More than 830,000 children have been cured in the programme with the cure rate rising steadily  currently standing at 85 per cent. Of the remaining children, about two per cent do not respond to treatment and are referred to hospitals; the current mortality rate is just one per cent, while the other children have defaulted from the programme.”

    Gough pointed out that “CMAM is carried out during weekly appointments over approximately eight weeks at primary health care centres. It includes education of parents and caregivers on nutrition, the importance of continuing breast-feeding and the role of hand-washing and hygiene.

    “The nutrition status of the children is assessed and children are given a health screening; if necessary, they are also treated for other illnesses. Children are given highly nutritious Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) during the sessions and mothers and caregivers are provided with supplies of RUTF to feed the child at home.”

     According to her, the cost for CMAM is just $160 for each child treated, including $76 for the RUTF; the remaining $84 covers all other costs, including staff time and training, transport and storage of supplies, and basic medicines adding that UNICEF and the Government of Nigeria are scaling up the CMAM response and UNICEF is advocating for increased investment in CMAM from both the government and external donors.”

    If Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on the Right of the Child which is the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty, which stipulates that every child has a right to life and that government should ensure that children survive and develop healthily, what went wrong?

    The Nation learnt  during a visit  to Yan’awaki Primary  health centre, one of the CMAN centres in Kano metropolis  that  helpless mothers visit the centre to access the UNICEF succour, ‘Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food’ (RUTF), which are given to the children directly to save their lives from acute malnutrition.

    The Nurse on duty, Maryam Abdullahi in a chat with the reporter disclosed that the women bring their malnourished children to the centre in droves and they are treated as outpatients, only the critical ones are placed on admission.

    According to her, the centre attends to between 50 to 100 patients everyday and they are supplied RUTF free of charge, a situation that encourages a lot of them to visit the centre.

    “We usually give them the drugs provided by the government and the UNICEF but if it is exhausted due to high demand, we request them to buy on their own. However, we educate them to make sure that their children are breastfed for about six months from birth so that they will have high immune system that will help to fight any related diseases in their body.

    “We also educate them on the type of food they should give these children after they are weaned since majority of it are available. This is necessary so as to reduce the scourge which is going towards dangerous dimension,” she explained

    Why we are in this mess?

    If the Nigerian government could afford to spend about N1.9 billion on mere centenary celebration and of recent another N12.9 billion on members of the National Assembly in two months, why are helpless children dying in millions everyday due to acute malnutrition which can be perfectly controlled?

    Speaking to The Nation on how things went wrong, a nutritionist with  UNICEF, Dr. Bamidele Omotola, said that it is sad that Nigerian children are experiencing such agonizing situation in the midst of the resources available.

    He noted that “There is no Nigerian child that should experience this situation; unfortunately we do have this precarious situation in our hands which we cannot help. A child who has this condition should have a place that is free to access health care in order to curb this situation. Just like when a child had malaria which ordinarily he should not, there should be a readymade hospital to access health facility at little or no cost.”

    Omotola who insisted that government provided the facilities that are being used in all the CMAN Centre’s in the country, said that UNICEF only assists to get same goal.

    “Let me put the record straight, the facilities are provided by the government. UNICEF is only assisting in order to run it. The government is facing a lot of enormous challenges. The health system is not immune to the challenges. The government is paying the staffs; we are only supporting, through supply, training and the tools to do the needful. We equally provide supervision to be sure that it is done properly.”

    The nutritionist regretted that some of the state governments did not cue in into the UNICEF programme in order to assist the malnourished children. “Very few governments in the country at state level cued into this programme and we are also constrained in the limit of what we can also raise from the donor community. The government is encouraged to make sure that universally, the services are available in all the Primary Health Care System in the country.” he said.

    Speaking in the same vein, the President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Prof. Ngosi Nnam pointed out that an average Nigerian child is short changed in the fight against acute malnutrition with the available resources the country is endowed with.

    The Head of Department of Home Science Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Nigeria, Nzukka, said the implication is that the future generation of Nigerian children has been affected. “When they are malnourished it affects the generality of their potentials and they will not be able to put their best to national development. When a child is malnourished it indirectly affects their brains. It will not develop well as how it ought to be developed since the brain controls every part of the body.”

    According to her, “if the brain is not developed because of malnutrition, it affects such a child particularly his reasoning ability. Children that are malnourished are stunted. When you compare them with relatively their age mate, they are smaller, again all the development organ of the body is also stunted. That means that whatever they are doing will be equally stunted.”

    The University don pointed out that “When it comes to knowledge acquisition like education, they will not conceptualize well and will not be able to reason well. This development will put the country backward.”

    However, a food scientist Mr. Emmanuel Ajayi heaped the blame on government who look elsewhere when billions of naira is looted away in the past with impunity and nothing was done to curb it adding that with the enormous resources the country is endowed with such a huge Nigerian children should not be killed like a chicken by acute malnutrition.

    Ajayi who recently came from India said despite the huge population over there, children health and welfare are in the front burner. “The reason why the case of malnutrition is endemic in the north is because of the poor level of education and ignorant. The bitter truth is that Nigeria child has been shortchange and at the dead end due to massive corruption of her past leaders.”

    He regretted that the little available resources which the government provided was not monitored properly, hence the country is dancing on same spot and paying lip service to primary health care system in the country.

    Step taken

    If acute malnutrition is so preponderant in 11 states of the north and some of the states claimed to have spent huge resources on health care delivery, why was the effect unnoticed, this is the question stakeholders are asking?

    Speaking to The Nation in Kano, a nutritionist with the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu said that a lot of positive steps had been taken by the government to combat the scourge adding that a lot is still needed from all the stake holders to achieve a favourable result.

    He noted that the country has spread her tentacles to international community like UNICEF and alike for a collaborative efforts to address the scourge.

    “Nigeria is one of the newest countries to become a SUN member and we are joining more 45 countries and over 100 international organization and donors to rally around a common agenda and solutions with the goal of mobilizing broad commitment and resources to advance our nutrition agenda.

    “We also have several multi-sectoral initiatives such as Maternal Newborn and Child Health Programme and Mainstreaming Nutrition in Agriculture, all of which are expanding nutrition intervention across the country to reach more of those in need.”

    The nutritionist argued that there is a lot all the stakeholders can do to curb the menace of acute malnutrition, adding that it is a collective effort. “The well to do in the society can also come to the aid of these children because it is capital intensive to be able to attend to all the victims,” he explained.

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

    Way Out

    If nearly four out of five Nigerian children do not meet the World Health Organisation’s recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life, it is obvious that a lot has to be done on advocacy and enlightenment programmes for nursing mothers especially at the grassroots.

    According to her, malnutrition has a lot to do with the brain. Though there is no study to back it up, but it is obvious that one can attribute poor performance in school to poor nutrition particularly during the 1000 days of life of a child.

    “Nigerian government should give more attention to the child health care in its entire ramification. The issue of nutrition should be urgently tackled.  The issue of nutrition is domicile in ministry of health and agriculture but if we can harness it together. Let the government establish a nutrition council that will address the issue of nutrition holistically, if this is done it will go a long way to address the issue of malnutrition in the country;”she noted

    Thinking along this line, Dr Omotola pointed out that the 1,000 day period from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second birthday represents a critical window of opportunity.

    “Adequate nutrition during this period can avert malnutrition, ensuring that children have the best possible opportunity to grow, learn and rise out of poverty. If this golden opportunity is missed, the effects are often irreversible.”

    Omotala argued that the solution is to redirect its priority in order to accommodate the basic need of an average child in the country. “It is necessary that our children have access to quality food and basic health facilities that are required. Aware that one of the factors that is contributing to our  high mortality figure is poor health and feeding, to reduce this there should be a deliberate funding of the sector to save Nigerian children.”

    He explained that “A breast is just like a well the more you draw from it the more it produces. If you do not draw from a well sooner or later it dries off. Mothers need to have appropriate knowledge and need to be encouraged to breast feed their children, it should not be assumed that all mothers can breastfeed.”

    To Ajayi, if all the money stolen from the nation’s  treasury are recovered by the present government, part of the money should be spent on children if the country wants to secure their future in terms of development and innovation.

    Speaking on how to curb malnutrition, UNICEF head of Nutrition, Wagt noted that it is a national problem that should be tacked nationally adding that two out of three infants and children in the country are not well fed.

    According to him exclusive breastfeeding has the potential to save more children’s lives than any other preventive intervention lamenting that “An estimated 13% of child deaths could be averted if 90% of mothers exclusively breastfeed their infants for the first six months of life.”

  • ‘Almost one million kids die from malnutrition yearly’

    835,500 children die every year from malnutrition-related ailments, the head of nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Chris Isokpunwu, has declared.

    He said the high mortality is induced by ailments such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and other infections.

    He pointed out that malnutrition was the underlying cause of all of these conditions.

    Nigeria, he said, needs about N200billion to address its nutritional deficiency in the next five years.

    Isokpunwu spoke at a media dialogue on child malnutrition with the theme “spend more money on nutrition” #stop child malnutrition in Nigeria” by the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF)

    According to him: “Under five mortality rate in Nigeria is 127 per 1000 live births.

    “Every year 839,500 children die. That comes to 2,300 from all causes and there are many causes of under five mortality.”

    To reverse the situation, he said investment in nutrition must improve, stressing that there was still a huge gap to fill.

    He said government has put in place adequate plans to deal with the situation, which he said is contained in the country’s strategic plan on nutrition that will soon be launched.

    The strategic plan he however said “will require about $918 million over a period of five years for us to achieve the set target.”

    The target according to him: “Include reducing stunting by 40 per cent, ensuring that there is no change in overweight (obesity), increasing breastfeeding rate to about 50 per cent and reducing anaemia in women.”

    The chief Nutritionist of UNICEF, Mr. Arjan de Wagt, said most of the children die of malnutrition within their first 1000 days on earth, describing the period as “window period.”

    Wagt said that the first 1000 days of a child are so important that they determine not only the child’s growth but also the entire health status throughout a lifetime.

    He informed that the chief cause of malnutrition is lack of exclusive breast feeding of the child in the first six months of his birth, insisting that breast milk is made strictly for babies.

    According to him, children that are not well-fed and properly cared for usually experience stunted growth, overweight, micro nutrient deficiency and prone to life- threatening diseases.

    UNICEF, Wagt said, has saved about 208,000 malnourished children through its numerous interventions in the last 12 months in the country.

  • UNICEF links 55 per cent of child mortality to malnutrition

    UNICEF links 55 per cent of child mortality to malnutrition

    UNICEF said on Thursday that 55 per cent of child mortality in Nigeria was associated with malnutrition.

    Mr. Arjan de WAGT, UNICEF Chief Nutritionist, said this at the opening of a two-day media dialogue on Nutrition and Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in Kano.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the objective of workshop is to create opportunity for media advocacy on child nutrition by sensitising journalists on nutrition crisis in Nigeria.

    WAGT said that child malnutrition was a national concern that cuts across the rich, the poor, food producing communities and it goes a long way to affect the development of the child.

    “‎Children’s nutritional status is the reflection of their overall health and it determines their developmental process, survival in life and 55 per cent of child mortality is associated with malnutrition.

    “Under nourished children have lowered resistance to infection and are more likely to die of common childhood sicknesses.

    “It is very important that the nutrient of a child at the first two years of life is highly nourishing ‎to develop the child properly,” WAGT said.

    He added that the proper nutrition of a child begins from the mother, adding that it affects all stages of life‎.

    The officer said that malnutrition results in low birth weight baby, child growth failure, low weight and height in adolescents and eventually small adult woman.

    “Poor maternal nutrition can result in disability of a baby or even a miscarriage because most important organs of the body develop before a woman realises she is pregnant,” he said.

    According to him, nutrients required by the body ‎are graded as macro nutrients and micro nutrients.

    He explained that macro nutrients were ‎needed by the body in large quantity and could be sourced from carbohydrate based food.

    WAGT added that micro nutrients were needed in minute quantities but had great effect on the body.

    The facilitator also stated that lack of iodine in the nutrition of a child could lead to mental retardation‎ and engender poor cognitive performance.

    “Nutrition has its impact on the educational performance of a child because the child has poor growth and will likely make the child lose 0.7 grades in school.

    “The child will also have seven months delay in starting school, reduction in mental capacity and adverse school performance,” said the officer.

    WAGT stressed that 80 per cent of the brain size of a child was developed within the first two years and if poorly developed could not be improved on.

    He also added that malnutrition was categorised into acute and chronic, explaining that acute is characterised by rapid weight loss and inability to grow in height irrespective of the age in chronic malnutrition.

    NAN also reports that the participants are expected to use their respective medium to advocate for urgent action in child malnutrition.

    They are also expected to engage in aggressive reportage on the nutrition crisis with focus on increasing government funding to combat malnutrition crisis at the end of the dialogue.

  • CHI, Tetra collaborate on child malnutrition

    CHI, Tetra collaborate on child malnutrition

    CHI Limited, one Nigeria’s leading producer of high quality fruit juice, dairy and snacks products, will join hands with Tetra Pak, a global leading food processing and packaging solutions’ company, to explore opportunities for feasible food & beverage solutions in an effort to fight malnutrition amongst children in Nigeria.

    CHI is one of the largest partners of Tetra Pak in Africa employing many of its packaging solutions to serve safe, innovative and environmentally friendly products to her customers across the country.

    As part of efforts to alleviate malnutrition among the country’s children, the joint initiative between CHI Limited & Tetra Pak will develop feasible solutions for providing healthy nourishment for Nigerian children. To achieve this, the companies will undertake an in-depth assessment of the ground realities of the nutritional requirements and the need gaps specific to children in Nigeria. This partnership will provide a platform for the involvement of relevant major stakeholders, institutes, governmental and non-governmental organizations for the delivery of nutrition solutions to the Nigerian children.

    Chairman of Chi Limited (the flagship company of the TGI Group), Mr. C G Vink, noted that “Child nutrition is important to our country’s future and being a proudly Nigerian company, we are committed to putting in our best to the building and shaping a healthy and brighter Nigeria.”

    Mr Dennis Jönsson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tetra Pak, said “Tetra Pak has partnered with governments, customers and other public and private partners to support school feeding programmes around the world for more than 50 years, promoting children’s right to nutrition, health and education as well as helping to build the demand for locally produced and processed products.  We are happy to have formed a strong partnership with Chi in Nigeria.”

    According to the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, up to 80 percent of Nigerian children suffer from nutrition deficiencies, particularly from Iron, Zinc and vitamins. This leads to slower brain development, concentration issues, a weak immune system and underdevelopment of memory, vision and hearing. Investments in education are significantly undermined if children are not nourished properly. According to the same survey, over one third of Nigerian children are malnourished to the extent that their physical growth is measurably reduced compared to children in peer countries. A case in reference, according to various available statistics from UNESCO, EU, FAO etc, as many as 11 million children in Nigeria are suffering from stunted growth occasioned by chronic malnutrition.

  • Malnutrition can be tackled

    To tackle malnutrition in the country, the government is to introduce and promote home fortification of stable foods. The pilot project is slated for Benue and Adamawa states.

    The Head of Nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Dr Chris Osa-Isokpunwu disclosed this at the Nestle’s Nutrition Health and Wellness/Creating Shared Value (CRS) Media workshop.

    Osa-Isokpunwu said the decision to use those two states is basically to avoid failure of the project once the ministry goes on a larger scale.

    Justifying the reason for the Home fortification project, that involves use of packaged 15mg of micronutrients to be added to steady food, he said, “Fortification is often more cost effective than other strategies and it is widely distributed and consumed. Malnutrition could be under nutrition, over nutrition or micronutrient deficient”, he stated.

  • Malnutrition can be tackled

    Malnutrition can be tackled

    To tackle malnutrition in the country, the government is to introduce and promote home fortification of stable foods. The pilot project is slated for Benue and Adamawa States.

    The Head of Nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Dr Chris Osa-Isokpunwu disclosed this at the Nestle’s Nutrition Health and Wellness/Creating Shared Value (CRS) Media workshop.

    Osa-Isokpunwu said the decision to use those two states is basically to avoid failure of the project once the ministry goes on a larger scale.

    Justifying the reason for the Home fortification project, that involves use of packaged 15mg of micronutrients to be added to steady food, he said, “Fortification is often more cost effective than other strategies and it is widely distributed and consumed. Malnutrition could be under nutrition, over nutrition or micronutrient deficient”, he stated.

     

  • How sweet potato can prevent malnutrition in children —Research

    How sweet potato can prevent malnutrition in children —Research

    NIGERIA has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the world. One in seven children dies before their fifth birthday, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). More worrisome is the fact that 13 per cent of Nigeria children are malnourished. This informed the assertion of the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition that malnutrition is the largest contributor to non-communicable diseases in the world. These diseases can affect the brain,  the health and the respiratory system, but the most common are gastrointestinal disease.

    Against this backdrop, the first 1,000 days of a child are crucial because this period determines what a child may likely become in the future. Therefore, no normal child can grow into a healthy, strong and happy adult without the intake of dietary diversification, The Nation gathered.

    The cognitive and physical damage caused by malnutrition during the 1,000-day-window between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday, is severe and often irreversible, with profound consequences for a child’s future.

    Buttressing this assertion, Prof. Ngozi Nnam, the President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, pointed out that this period  is when the physical and mental development of the child is developed to achieve full potential with window of opportunity which can have a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and rise out of poverty is formed.

    Nutrition experts say breastfeeding initiated immediately after birth and continued until two years with appropriate complementary feeding has both short and long-term impact on the health and nutrition of a child. But the big question is, how many nursing mothers can afford to breast feed her baby for two years in Nigeria of nowadays?

    However,  in order to bridge the wide gap of nourishing food that will discourage malnutrition caused by poverty and penury, a recipe in terms of appropriate complementary nutrition for a Nigerian child has surfaced in Orange Fleshed  Sweet Potato (OFSP), The Nation authoritatively gathered.

    In a fact-finding mission to verify the nutrient value in sweet potato in general and OFSP in particular, this reporter was at the National Root Crops Research  Institute at Umudike, Abia State, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State and the International Potato Centre, Abuja.

    Since sweet potato is one of the root crops that can grow well virtually in all the states of the federation, according to experts, if it is well harnessed and made available as a daily menu to rural communities, with time, malnutrition in Nigerian child will become history.

    54, 55 SWEET POTATO 14-3-15.Speaking to The Nation about the nutrient value of sweet potato, one of the notable sweet potato breeders in the country and a researcher at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State, Mr. Solomon Oluwafemi Afuape, said that the nutrient value in sweet potato is so enormous that if it is well tapped, Nigerian child will not suffer from malnutrition again.

    Afuape, who took this reporter round the sweet potato research field at Umudike, said: “Whether it is white, purple, yellow or orange, every sweet potato is a bundle of vitamins and minerals. It contains Vitamin B6, Vitamin C and other minerals. But the OFSP is orange in colour and tastes like carrots; it is so because of the carotenoid it contains.  It has beta- carotene in abundance. This is what our body converts to Vitamin A.”

    According to him, the beta- carotene helps the brain of a child to develop; it also assists in boosting the immune system so that the body of the child can fight diseases better. “It also has in abundance what smoothens the skin; in fact, it is the artificial one that the women are robbing on the face to make it smooth. It is also a neutraliser of some substance inhaled to the body and makes it harmless. It makes the skin to  flourish and be alive.”

    The researcher pointed out that” the richness of Vitamin A in beta-carotene also makes the eye to be sharper as we grow. Someone who eats sweet potato regularly does not have chances of having cancer-related diseases.”

    He explained that the latest varieties of OFSP that are been duplicated by some dedicated farmers in the country are ‘Mother delight and King J varieties’.

    The Nation intensive investigations revealed that this vitamin if present in a child’s food shortly before weaning, will go a long way to make the baby healthy and full of life with a strong immune system built round her against diseases.

    Speaking in the same vein, a nutritionist at Garki Hospital, Abuja, Miss Yemisi Olowookere, underscoring the importance of sweet potato to nursing mothers advised them to include it in their daily menu because it is good for cardiovascular health.

    Olowookere explains that potato is a rich source of flavonoid anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre that are essential for optimal health.

    According to her, the tuber contains no saturated fats or cholesterol and it is a rich source of dietary fibre, anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals. “Potatoes are good source of Vitamin C, it helps ward off cold and flu viruses as well as bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation.”

    The nutritionist pointed out that sweet potato helps to accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity and is essential in helping us cope with stress. “It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.”

    She explained that sweet potato also contains Vitamin D which is critical for immune system and overall health. “Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy level, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart nerves, skin and teeth and it supports the thyroid gland.”

    Investigation by The Nation revealed that most nursing mothers could not afford giving their children the needed nutrients due to poverty. Malnutrition, according to experts, is one of the world’s most serious but least addressed problems. It claims the lives of three million children each year, yet it is almost entirely preventable. Close to 200 million children suffer from chronic nutritional deprivation that leaves them permanently stunted -unable to fulfill their genetic potential to grow and thrive – and keeps families, communities and countries locked in a cycle of hunger and poverty.

    More worrisome and pathetic  is the fact that  majority of mothers do not practise breast feeding because they are not fully aware of the benefits of breastfeeding and more importantly, they do not understand the long-term adverse impact of non-breast feeding of their babies. The few that are aware are carried away by the hustling and bustling of economic survival at the expense of their kids.

    Perhaps  against this backdrop, last year November 2014 , over 190 governments gathered in Rome for the International Conference on Nutrition to discuss and advance policy options and strategies to improve food system and people’s diet in order to more effectively address the world’s major nutrition challenges.

    The conference  that launched the first ever Global Nutrition Report, which presents a comprehensive view of global and country- level progress against malnutrition, regretted that one out of every two people on the planet is undernourished, micronutrient deficient, obese or a combination of all three, adding that all hands should be on deck to address the issue.

    The Nation gathered that the importance the country attached to the OFSP made her to go all out to exploit all its wealth and health benefits by naming the project as Rainbow Project, which incorporated all stakeholders in sweet potato value chain, the potato farmers, researchers and processors.

    Speaking to this reporter on the objective of the Rainbow Project, the Project leader, Dr Olapeju Phorbee, said the idea behind the project was centered on health and wealth creation.”The project was to provide the needed Vitamin A which is deficient in pregnant women and children in the country and make it available to them at their door step in terms of OFSP.”

    According to her, the OFSP has been tested, tasted and found suitable, adding that there is a pilot scheme which targeted some selected state where vines are duplicated. These include Ebonyi, Osun, Kaduna, Benue, Kwara, Nasarawa/FCT.

    Phorbee explained that OFSP is rich in Vitamin A, which is particularly good for a child in its 1,000 days of its existence. It will give the baby a high immune system that will assist to wade off diseases which children are facing at this crucial period.”

    She pointed out that due to the high nutrition value in OFSP, the project keyed into the Osun State government school feeding project, which the state is operating to give the children the needed nutrition at such a tender age so that they will be able to build high immune system in their body.

    “We went round the state to educate and train the food vendors the need to include OFSP in the daily menu of the school feeding system; this is a right step at the right time. This will give the opportunity to the school children the right diet that will hasten their growth and discourage all these preventable diseases.

    She said that by the time the project has a complete circle, “we would be able to produce other food items from the OFSP like potato garri, flour, bread and potato chips. This will go to a greater length to assist Nigerian children to grow and have sound health.”

    The project leader, who encourages other states in the country to duplicate what is going on in Osun, said this will give opportunity to eradicate malnutrition which is ravaging the lives of Nigerian school children.

    Corroborating Phorbee’s assertion on the importance of sweet potato, Mr. Emmanuel Ajayi, a food scientist, said “Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet-tasting, but their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy.”

    Ajayi said it is not just sweet to the taste  but the value is one of the highest among the root-vegetables categories, adding that sweet potatoes are a good source of magnesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral.

    He explained: “Sweet potatoes help in red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper immune functioning and the metabolising of protein, among other things.”

    According to him, there are other products which sweet potato can be used for and which can be duplicated in a commercial purpose and it will be available to all households at giveaway prices, “such products are potato bread, chips, cake, flour, among others.”

    As a processor, who had done a lot of extensive research on what sweet potato could be turned to, Mr. Abraham Oyeyemi Idowu, the Head of Department of Food Science, the Federal Polytechnics Offa, Kwara State, said sweet potato is all rounder in terms of nutrient provision.

    Idowu, who said that the school had been working on sweet potato since 2005, noted that it was the former Rector of the school, Dr Rasak Bello, who saw it in China and challenged the department to produce potato bread with only 10 per cent of wheat. Since we have sweet potato production in Offa and its environ, we went into action.

    He said from that experiment in 2005, the school has not rested on its oars to research deep into what sweet potato can be turned to.”The recent variety called OFSP is so rich in Vitamins A,  C, and D that it was used to produce a lot of products   like potato flour (pie, scot egg chips) juice, jam,  potato corn vita, OFSP sorghum-vita, golden corn and custard at the polytechnics.

    According to him, if all these products are duplicated and commercialised, it will assist nursing mothers and their babies to have good and nourishing intake.”The issue of our children developing a disease like malnutrition will be a thing of the past.”

    He said if the school feeding project that is currently going on in Osun State could be duplicated throughout the country, the project might have succeeded in providing the necessary diet to millions of Nigerians children and could have saved the country from children diseases and stunted growth among our children.

    Admonishing the importance of nutrient inherent in sweet potato, Idowu noted that about 142 sweet potato vendors in Offa were given training on OFSP and how they can package it better and make it available to some of the school children in the vicinity, adding that if the state can also imbibe the school feeding system, it would go a long way to make nourishing diet available to children of school age and avoid future diseases.