Fred Ezeh, Abuja
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for urgent action from Nigerian government and other stakeholders to rescue the future of Nigerian children, as more of them are dying of poor nutrition and other unhealthy exposure.
UNICEF said that its latest report on children, food and nutrition, that malnutrition remains major public health and development concern in Nigeria, as 49 percent of children under five years of age are not growing well, meaning that they are either stunted, wasted or overweight.
It added that 34 percent of children between six months and two years of age are fed with food that is neither rich in content nor diversified enough to ensure optimal growth.
The report noted that poor eating habit and feeding practices start from the earliest days of a child’s life. It noted that, though breastfeeding save lives, only 27 percent of Nigerian children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed and an increasing number of them are fed with infant formula.
UNICEF in a statement released in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the report confirmed that as children transit to soft or solid foods around the six month mark, too many are introduced to the wrong kind of diet.
In addition that, as they grow older, their exposure to unhealthy food becomes alarming, driven largely by inappropriate marketing and advertising, in addition to abundance of ultra-processed foods in cities and remote areas, and increasing access to fast food and highly sweetened beverages.
The report also noted that climate related disasters caused severe food crisis. It added that drought was responsible for 80 percent of damage and losses in agriculture globally, dramatically altering what food is available to children and families, as well as their quality and price.
The report, however, suggested an increased investment in interventions aimed at preventing malnutrition among young children and supporting treatment when prevention fails.