Curbing the rising malnutrition crisis in Nigeria
There seems to be some silent emergency in malnutrition in Nigeria, with the main underlying cause of nearly half of the preventable child deaths and over 20 per cent of maternal deaths.
Nigeria has to change around the story about malnutrition, with the problems of waste in the macro deficiency, in the mist of all health care issues , good nutrition is important .
Malnutrition is a condition that results from eating a diet in which nutrients are either not enough or are too much such that the diet causes health problems.
Protein-energy malnutrition has two serve forms. Marasmus (a lack of protein and calories) and kwashiorkor (a lack of just protein).
Malnutrition manifests itself in many forms: as children who do not grow and develop their full potentials, as people who are skin and bone or prone to infection, as people who carry too much weight or whose blood contains too much sugar, salt, or cholesterol
The high rate of early marriages mostly in the northern part of the country, which means that girls are not been educated and research shows that educated mothers are more likely to have healthy children.
The level of chronic malnutrition in Nigeria reveals over 33 per cent of children are suffering from malnutrition and over 11 million children will either die or will not develop to their full potentials because of chronic malnutrition which is stunting.
Meera Shekar, lead health specialist and global lead on nutrition said situation of Malnutrition is a critical barrier to a full brain development; a malnourished children learn less in schools and Malnutrition happens in the first 1000 days of a child’s life from conception to the child’s second birthday and children lose up IQ points if they do not receive adequate nutrition and care in the first 1000 days of their lives .This early damage is essentially irreversible, with reduced cognitive growth; it decreases the learning ability and lost productivity in adult years.
The Prevalence of underweight, weight of age and less than five years of age suffers from chronic malnutrition and crisis of Malnutrition affects millions of Nigeria’s, over 50 per cent malnourished and 10 million stunted.
The child stunting rates in Nigeria is not only on the poor, but also on the middle and the rich class. In Nigeria some southern states have stunting as low as 9 per cent while in the north nine states Bauchi,Jigawa,kaduna, Kano, kastina Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara in the north east and North West states have rates of child stunting that exceeds 50 per cent, which is the well above the highest rate of malnutrition in countries in Africa.
Eliminating malnutrition is very visible, Successful cases exist from range of neighbouring country like Senegal; at scale to address their malnutrition challenges have demonstrated that this problem is not intractable.
Stunting is as height for age and is a measure of chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition in children is usually linked to lack of nutritious food as well as health issues such as diarrhoea, two out of three in Nigeria are not able to get the right food; only 10 per cent of Nigeria children have access to complimentary food in quality
Chronic malnutrition can be prevented in Nigeria by giving children between 0 and 6 months exclusive breast feeding, also preparing nutrient rich food for children immediately after exclusive breast feeding and also proper hygiene, by washing hands and utensils after use to avoid diseases
Malnutrition is plot back Nigeria’s potentials to contend in the global information and knowledge based economy.
Lack of breastfeeding may contribute, as may a number of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, gastroenteritis, and measles, which increase nutrient requirements.
Efforts to improve nutrition are some of the most effective forms of development aid. Breastfeeding can reduce rates of malnutrition and death in children and also to promote the practice in rate of breastfeeding.
Investing in ending malnutrition is one of the most cost effective steps governments, civic society organizations, donors and business need to do more to ensure that the budget in various sectors-health systems, agriculture, education, food system, social protection, water, sanitation.
Anthonia Obokoh