Malnutrition of Nigerian children under five, worsens — UNICEF

diamond hope

February 15, 2018 12:22 PM

The Nigerian government has made a large effort to decrease malnutrition of children, still UNICEF says it is on the increase.

United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) specialist on monitoring and evaluation, Maureen Zubie-Okolo revealed during a two-day media dialogue on data-driven reporting that despite efforts being made, the malnutrition of infants has worsened.

Although budgetary allocations towards tackling the menace of malnutrition and the constant on-going enlightenment on the need for proper nutrition in the early stages of a child's life, the spate of malnutrition has continued to increase.

The research is in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2017 in which 33,901 households and 2,239 enumeration areas across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT‎ were used.

While noting that health issues related to malnutrition can also do lifelong harm, she said the spate of malnutrition cuts across children who are too thin for their age, children who are too short for their age and children who are to thin for their height.

"Malnutrition among the children under five years has worsened generally. Underweight prevalence‎ has increased from 24.2% to 31.5%, stunting prevalence increased from 34.8% to 43.6% while wasting prevalence increased marginally from 10.2% to 10.8%."

‎"In low and middle-income countries, the age 3-24 months is a time when growth falters for too many children. An inadequate diet during this period increases the risk of stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, illnesses, and death."

Meanwhile, a total of 34,367 eligible women; 28,085 of mothers and caregivers of children under five years and 15,183 men were interviewed using structured questionnaires aided by Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) devices.