Malnutrition, highest killer of children – Osun

From Fisayo Akinduro, Osogbo
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Osun State Primary Healthcare Development Board has disclosed that at least 101 out of 1,000 children born in the state die before  the age of 5 due to malnutrition.

The Director of Nutrition at the Primary Health Development Board, Mr. Mayowa Olaniyi made the disclosure in Osogbo during a stakeholders’ session on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF), supported by Alive and Thrive (FHI 360).

Olaniyi said 56 out of 1,000 newly born children in the state die within 28 days of birth and that about 78 children out of 1,000 die before they are 12-month-old.

According to him,  only 23 children, out of 100 in the state are being breastfed within 1 hour of delivery, while 16 babies out of 100 are given other fluids before breastfeeding.

Only 55 out of 100 babies are exclusively breastfed with underlying implications,  while 101 out of 1,000 children die in Osun before they are 5 years old.”

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has authenticated the data which emanates from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),” he explained.

The Executive Secretary of  Osun State Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr. Oluwole Fabiyi urged nursing mothers in the state to ensure they practise exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months after delivery, so that their children would be alive, healthy and able to attain full potentials in life.

In her presentation, the representative of Alive and Thrive, Mrs Stephanie Dada said 45 percent of preventable deaths in children under age of 5 are due to malnutrition , emphasizing that exclusive breastfeeding is the cheapest and easiest way out of the dilemma.