The Lagos State Government, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, has trained no fewer than 60 frontline health workers on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the state and the country in general.
The state government expressed optimism that the training of the health workers with support from the World Bank through its Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project, would check high infant deaths linked to malnutrition in the country.
Nigeria is ranked number one in Africa and second in the world in terms of malnourished children, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
UNICEF also stated that 12 million out of the 35 million under-five children in Nigeria are stunted due to malnutrition.
Left untreated, experts say children with severe acute malnutrition are nearly 12 times more likely to die than a healthy child.
Speaking at the ongoing training of the health workers in Lagos, on Tuesday, the Director and Head of the Nutrition Department, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, said the nutrition workshop is more of a preventive approach and not treatment.
The workshop was organised by the Federal Government under the Federal Ministry of Health, Nutrition Department and supported by the World Bank ANRIN project.
The World Bank ANRIN project focuses on the prevention of malnutrition among pregnant women and lactating mothers including children less than five years.
The programme is being implemented in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Bako-Aiyegbusi, who was represented by a senior medical officer of the ministry, Maria Odey, identified malnutrition as a major contributor to an alarming number of infant mortality in the country.
Odey said, “This training is specifically for nutrition. It is complementary to some treatment courses like the integrated management of childhood illnesses and the integrated management of acute malnutrition.
“It talks more about nutrition because we know that malnutrition is contributing to over 50 per cent of infant mortality.
“So, it is more of a preventive course training and not treatment. It is to encourage mothers and caregivers to use commonly available rich foods to prepare meals for children and promote breastfeeding. We have 60 health workers for the training.”
The director disclosed that the objective of the workshop which was also supported by FHI 360 Alive & Thrive was to improve maternal, infant, and young child nutrition.
The Alive & Thrive initiative, managed by FHI 360, is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Government of Ireland, and other donors.
She added, “We expect that frontline health workers and the community in general, will have basic knowledge of adequate appropriate maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, and adolescent nutrition.
“Part of the specific objective of the workshop is to improve health workers’ counselling skills on maternal and child nutrition and how to get appropriate information from parents to improve their nutrition.”
She noted that nutrition counselling helps mothers or caregivers make the right decisions and take the necessary actions required to improve their nutrition and that of their babies.
This includes decisions and actions on the types, diversity, and amounts of food a mother or caregiver and the child should eat to meet their dietary requirements.
She also noted that the training provided health workers with guidance on how to improve the coverage and quality of maternal and child nutrition counselling.
The Director of Family Health and Nutrition, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Folashade Oludara, said stunted if not reversed by the age of two years could cause irreversible brain damage to the child.
Oludara explained that once the brain of a child was damaged, there was little or nothing anybody could do anymore.
She said, “So we are trying to change this narrative and ensure that none of our children (before they clock the age of two) has malnutrition and do not get stunted to the level that their brain will be irreversibly damaged.
“The objective of the training is to improve Nigeria’s nutritional indices in the state just as we know that right now, there’s food insecurity everywhere and the major group of the community affected are the mothers and children.
“Mothers especially when they are pregnant and children especially when they are under the age of five. So what we are doing today is to intensify the efforts, to improve the efforts of our health workers in providing correct information to the caregivers or pregnant women on the type of nutrition, food or diet that they are supposed to take.”
According to her, the training is going to be focused on the use of locally available foodstuff to be able to meet up with daily nutritional requirements at every level.
Also speaking, State Coordinator, FHI 360 Alive & Thrive Lagos, Olawumi Ajayi, said the organisation would continue to create lasting solutions that improve lives and health outcomes across the globe.
“We believe that through collaboration and continuous learning, we can make significant strides in combating malnutrition and promoting health and well-being for mothers and children in Nigeria and beyond.
“FHI 360 Alive & Thrive is honoured to support the Lagos State Ministry of Health on this training and we believe it will go a long way in improving the nutrition situation in the state,” Ajayi said.