Malnutrition: UNICEF Calls for Immediate Treatment for 200,000 Stunted Children in Lagos to Avert Death

Rebecca Ejifoma

The United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF), has called on the Lagos state government for immediate treatment of the 200,000 children in the state to avoid death.

The Nutrition Specialist of UNICEF, Mrs Ada Ezeogu made this worrying call at a two-day Advocacy Meeting with media on the First 1000 days of a Child and COVAX Uptake in Lagos State powered by UNICEF and National Orientation Agency (NOA).

“The percentage of wasted children in Lagos is 6.4, which translates to an absolute number of more than 200,000 children. Wasting in Lagos is higher than the global target which is less than five per cent. If these children are not treated on time, we may lose them,” the nutritionist warned.

On the duration of treatment, Ezeogu noted that immediately after a child is screened and you find out he or she is severely malnourished, the child should be referred to the health centre.

While admitting that Lagos State is already doing some management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), they use ready therapeutic food. If there are underlying conditions, they would be treated.

“We encourage mothers to take these children immediately to health facilities for treatment.” adding that the Lagos state government need to increase screening to identify these children from the community first.

She emphasised: “Increase the number of health workers who have the skills to screen children so they can be referred. And indeed since we have the community health workers (CHEWS) programmes and these people get to the communities, they could be trained to screen children so that we can get these children early enough to refer them to the hospitals.”

According to the nutritionist, the stunting rate in Lagos is 17.2 per cent while in Oyo is 34.5 per cent. “When you convert that to numbers, Lagos has almost 2,000 children stunted in terms of absolute numbers.

“So you have a huge number. Do we want this number to continue because we know that stunting does not just affect physical growth but also cognitive development? Stunting, once the effect has set in, is irreversible,” she added.

According to Ezeogu, a stunted child would grow taller to a certain height but he can’t exceed it. “Already that child is compromised both in terms of height, and physical cognitive development.

“There are implications for the onset of adult non-communicable diseases like diabetes. There is a tendency that people will still have that as they grow on later in life as a result of this stunted or malnourish as a child.”

She cautioned that once there’s malnutrition, the child easily falls ill. Adding that the immune system is also compromised because of that health cost increases. “There are health cost implications. That child may not be good as one fully nourished in school.”

She, therefore, called for more practice of exclusive breastfeeding and adequate complementary feeding to avert 13 per cent of deaths.

According to Ezeogu, mothers need to sustain the six-month breastfeeding routine as recommended to help the child gain adequate nutrients for the first 1,000 days of the child’s life. This, she said, will help the child survive and thrive.

“The first 1,000 days begin from conception to age two. The first 1,000 days are the golden window opportunity. This is when the transformational change takes place. If you miss it, you can’t recover it,” she emphasised.

Ezeogu, however, hinted at the risk associated with malnutrition if missed in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. They include poor brain development and low IQ among others.