Oyo State is not tackling malnutrition — Civil Society Network
Civil society scaling up nutrition in its research said Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 32 percent of children under five with Oyo state among the states paying less attention to the need of nutrition in our society.
The association, who made this known during A Day Quarterly Media Engagement On Infant and Young Child Feeding Practice, said an estimated 2 million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition but only two out of every 10 children affected is currently reached with treatment. Seven percent of women of childbearing age also suffer from acute malnutrition.
Dr Taibat Oduneye in her lecture said Malnutrition has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for over 50% of the 106 million deaths annually among children under 5 years.
“The level of malnutrition among under five Nigerian children is largely due to poor infant & young child feeding (YCP) practices, and Oyo state not excluded in the development because of the way the government is attending to the need of nutrition in the society. Optimal infant and young child feeding is fundamental for the survival, health, nutrition, growth, and development of a child.”
She explained that WHO and UNICEF actively promote breastfeeding as the best nourishment for infants and young children
“WHO and UNICEF recommend mothers worldwide to exclusively breastfeed infant for the child’s first six months to achieve growth, development and health. thereafter, they should be given nutritious complementary foods and continue breastfeeding up age of two years and beyond.”
Also speaking at that event was the ANRIN Project Coordinator, Dr Khadijah Alarape, who explained the importance of ANRIN in ensuring that children are expose to nutrition while growing up.
“The development objective of Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project is to increase utilization of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years of age in select areas of the Recipient’s territory.
“This project has two components. The first component, Basic Package of Nutrition Services, aims to scale up a basic package of nutrition-related interventions in twelve states. The second component, Stewardship and Project Management, aims to strengthen key stewardship functions at the federal and state levels for the sustained delivery of nutrition services.”
