53% of Nigerian child death directly caused by malnutrition

Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria CS-SUNN has raised concern about malnutrition in Nigeria after data revealing as many as 53 in every 100 deaths among children age under five is directly related to malnutrition.

At a training for journalists in Abuja, CS-SUNN said Nigeria loses 2,000 children aged under five to malnutrition daily.

While analyzing the survey, Project Manager of CS-SUNN, Sunday Okoronkwo emphasized that nutrition is a multi-sector issue of serious concern that requires a collective response.

He lamented that health budgets allocated and released are focused more on the curative measures than preventive measures.

“It is more cost-effective to prevent children from getting malnourished than treating malnutrition. Treatment for an acutely malnourished child cost N57,000.

“Right interventions for both mother and baby in first 1,000 days set the stage for physical, emotional, and intellectual development for the child’s entire life,” he said

He added that a malnourished child when immunized does not absorb or utilize the immunization.

He further urged the government to scale up and sustain existing interventions on nutrition.

The Media training which included a field visit to Kwali Primary Health Care (PHC) observed that most mothers at the centre do not practice exclusive breast feeding.

EBF requires a mother to feed her child only breast milk for the first six months of the child’s life.

Lillian Ajah-mong, CS-SUNN’s Communication Officer called for more sensitization and involvement of men to ensure that women continue to breastfeed their children for two years in addition to adequate complementary feeding.