The United Nations Children Fund has said that about 500,000 Nigerian children die from malnutrition yearly.
UNICEF made this known during a two day workshop in Calabar for media executives and health correspondents of many Nigerian media organisations.
The workshop, tagged: #Stop Child Malnutrition in Nigeria, was coordinated by the UNICEF’s Communication Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku.
While speaking on the nutritional situation in Nigeria and its impact on children, the Chief Nutritionist of UNICEF, Arjan de Wagt said “Whenever we talk about malnutrition, the only thing that comes to the mind is that it is for the poor uneducated rural people who have less to eat. But malnutrition also includes eating wrong food or unbalanced diet. It is about lack of knowledge of the food we eat and not lack of food.”
Wang emphasised that the chief cause of malnutrition is lack of exclusive breast feeding of the child in the first six months of his birth.
He urged nursing mothers to breastfeed as this helps the baby to prevent stunted growth, overweight, micro nutrient deficiency and other life threatening diseases.
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