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Some Solutions To Malnutrition, The Greatest Cause Of Child Mortality In Nigeria - Health - Nairaland

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Kano Battles Malnutrition As 1.5 Million Children Under Five At Risk / UNICEF: 100 Children Under Five Die Of Malnutrition In Nigeria Every Hour / Acute Malnutrition Hits Nasarawa, 30 Children Dead, 2,000 Others Hospitalised (2) (3) (4)

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Some Solutions To Malnutrition, The Greatest Cause Of Child Mortality In Nigeria by Edunews: 7:11pm On Oct 14, 2018
PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATION:

Good nutrition is a human right.
Over 15m Nigerian children malnourished
Malnutrition is the major cause of Child mortality in Nigeria.
Pregnant women who are not adequately nourished would give birth to babies with low weight.
You must not eat meat, fish or egg to be healthy.
You can prepare nutritious food from locally sourced ingredients.
Govt and other relevant authorities must do more to address the problem of hunger and malnutrition
A malnutrition free generation is possible if mothers are properly educated about local foods and children are treated with those locally available nutritious foods.

It is quite alarming that 80 per cent of the world’s stunted children, live in 14 countries and Nigeria is the second largest contributor after India. An estimated 2.5 million children under the age of five suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) every year as detailed by UNICEF. Northern Nigeria has about 88% of Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition in Nigeria.

Malnutrition is a very serious condition that makes children ten times more likely to die from common childhood illnesses such as such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. Every year, nearly 420,000 children under five die as a result of this deadly combination in Nigeria.

According to Nigeria’s facts sheet on nutrition, the disparities in malnutrition related to various background characteristics are significant in Nigeria, but are often more pronounced for stunting. Children from rural areas are almost twice as likely to be stunted as children from urban areas. A child whose mother has no education is four times more likely to be stunted than a child whose mother has secondary or higher education. Children from the poorest 20 per cent of households are also four times more likely to be stunted than children from the wealthiest 20 per cent of households.

Many interventions launched by governments and partners to address this issue involve the use of imported Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). However, all year round, tons of food- maize, millet, groundnut, beans, soya beans and others- are harvested all over the country. These foods contain all the micronutrients necessary for a child’s well-being, growth, and development. They are also the main contents of the imported ready to use therapeutic foods, so the obvious question seems to be, why have we not been able to use our own locally available foods to fight the scourge of malnutrition in Nigeria?


Soy Kunu is a locally sourced and prepared blend consisting of peanut, millet and soya beans. The three seeds are ground together into ready-to-use powder form, and later prepared by adding boiled water to make a porridge.


Final Approach To Tackling Malnutrition In Nigeria
The following economical approach should be employed to tackle the menace of acute Malnutrition in Nigeria.
Identify local foods that will help mothers better nourish their children
Use of locally sourced and prepared food ingredients consisting of the basic required nutrients, such as shown above.
Encouraging the use of community health ambassadors to organize practical seminar and train pregnant and breastfeeding women to prepare nutritious foods for themselves and their children from local sources.
Educating Mothers and Women on Malnutrition
Educate women and pregnant mothers on WHO standard using weight, length and upper arm circumference to measure the nutritional status of their children.

For full assesssments, See Source: https://publichealthng.com/severe-malnutrition-a-disturbance-in-nigerian-health-sector/

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