Lagos State recorded about 2,000 children with stunted growth due to malnutrition, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, Nutrition Specialist of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said on Saturday.
Consequently, Ezeogu said it is important to ensure that these numbers do not continue to increase as stunting affects physical growth as well as cognitive development.
Stunting and Wasting are health conditions that occur in children as a result of malnutrition.
Ezeogu spoke at the Media Advocacy Meeting by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), in collaboration with UNICEF.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day programme, which was attended by 50 media practitioners, was held at the Patron Hotel, Lekki, Sangotedo, with the encouragement of COVAX and RI (Routine Immunization) Uptake in Lagos State.
He said: “Once the effects of stunting are there, they are irreversible and irreversible and this compromises the child’s height, physical development and cognitive development.
“So, you’re not going to get the best out of the child and the child is not going to reach his or her maximum potential in life.
“Also, there are implications for the onset of non-communicable diseases in adults such as diabetes, and the tendency for children who are obese or malnourished to develop these diseases at a later age,” he said.
The specialist said that stunting has implications that extend from childhood to adulthood, so it should be prevented.
“If there is a lack of nutrition, the child gets sick easily and the immune system is also damaged, increasing health costs because the child is often taken to the hospital.
“Also, the child may not be as good as someone who has been full of nutrition in school and by implication, it will produce grade repetition. So all this has an economic impact on the economy and the school system.
“So if you have a child who is repetitive or completely inattentive or whose attention span is reduced because of malnutrition, then you have implications for the education system and the health system,” he said.
Ezeogu also said that the percentage of spending in Lagos is higher than the global target of less than five percent, noting that Lagos has 6.4 percent, which translates to about 200,000 children.
“As soon as a child is screened and found to be malnourished, the child must be referred to the health center.
“Thankfully, Lagos has done something with the management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
“They use ready-to-use therapeutic foods and if there is an underlying condition, they are treated.
“We urge mothers to take these children to health facilities immediately for attention because they are wasted, if these children are not treated properly, they may die,” said the specialist.
However, Ezeogu said there was no designated center for SAM in the country but indicated that intervention programs could be found in some hospitals.
“I understand that Children’s Mercy Hospital has a ward that treats children with SAM and is trained to handle these cases,” he said.
The specialist called on the Lagos State Government to increase screening, to identify these children from the community and also to increase the number of health workers who have the skills to screen children.
“That way, there will be timely intervention and affected children can be identified early enough and referred to health centers,” he said.