Today’s children are the future leaders of tomorrow, hence the need to nurture the future national leaders.  An active and healthy child is the parents’ delight.  Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that adequate nutrition is provided for a child in order to enable the child grow properly.  An ill child will not only be a source of worry to the parents but also a problem to the nation.  Nutritional disorders are common in young children in developing countries and constitute a major public health problem.

Children in particular are easy victims of nutritional deficiencies which can have fatal consequences, and even where these deficiencies are survived, they still have a permanent effect on children, depriving them of a fair chance in life.  This is why great emphasis has always been laid on maternal and child health in order to guard against nutritional deficiencies, especially during the period of most rapid growth and development from conception through gestation to infancy.  Hence, the fourth goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) — reduce child mortality rates. Adequate nutrition during childhood is fundamental to the attainment of MDGs for optimal growth.

The nutritional deficiencies of childhood cannot be compensated for by improved nutrition in adulthood.  The weak points in child nutrition are reflected in the type of food infants are offered during the weaning period, that is the gradual transition from breast milk to adult diet.  Most children are weaned earlier in life than when they should be weaned.  This may arise due to factors such as, the mother resuming back to work or early pregnancy of the mother after child birth. These factors prevent the infant from receiving adequate nutrition.  When such infants are weaned, they do not obtain the necessary and adequate diet to help them grow.  For example, a typical weaning diet in our society is corn pap (ogi) with sugar.  The infant is fed with this diet extensively over a long period of time.  This kind of diet is inadequate as it does not contain foods from all the five food groups.

Unfortunately, our traditional society has not fully developed special weaning foods for this critical period of child development, and even the food being offered to adults is not adequate enough to meet the nutritional needs of the fast-growing child.  This kind of development will lead to poor nutritional status of the child especially those under the age of five.  The child tends to be stunted, underweight and may also suffer from vitamin A deficiency and also iron and iodine deficiency.

Poor nutrition and bad health impede school attendance and interfere with mental development and ability to concentrate in class because hungry children are less likely to go to school and less able to learn if they attend.  When these categories of children are enrolled in primary schools, the resultant consequences are: poor attendance at school, poor learning achievements, low health status and high withdrawal rate.

The prevailing malnutrition in our society is preventable to a great extent by the proper utilisation of our local food resources.  There is the possibility of developing special foods from the local staples for infant feeding, so that the change from breast milk to adult food will be gradual and not as sudden as it is in the traditional way.

Many African women are not at a loss as to what to give their children for proper nutrition.  Even sophisticated mothers may give their children the imported and usually expensive foods in preference to foods prepared from local food ingredients, thus sacrificing the health of their children for social prestige. For example, they give babies custard made from custard powder which is refined corn-starch with an additive to colour it.  If this is done because of ignorance, then there is an answer to it.

There are low cost and nutritious local staples which could be used in the preparation of nourishing weaning foods for infants.  The supply of animal protein foods, particularly, to the under five year old children is very meagre, though their protein requirements are very great.

For these children, their food rations should be based around local foods such as rice, beans, cereals and locally produced vegetables.  Tradition demands that both parents, and especially the father, should get the lion’s share of meat and fish while these are considered luxuries for children.  These protein foods of animal origin are necessary and they are also of great beneficial effect to the children.

They help the child to obtain both physical and mental development.  Therefore, they should not be deprived of such foods.  For a child to get the best out of food when weaned, it is best to consult a nutritionist/dietitian to guide in constructing a well-balanced food plan.

Inadequate and ill-balanced diets may check normal growth at any stage in a child’s development, but when the weaning diet is poor, the result is retarded development.

When signs of malnutrition such as stunted growth, physical inertia (laziness), and mental apathy appear in a child, immediate help should be sought by taking the child to a health facility and consulting with a physician and also a nutritionist/dietitian.

The results of malnutrition in children are very damaging to their physical, mental and social development and such severe setbacks cannot be easily remedied in later life.  It is, therefore, very necessary to make every sacrifice to provide children with adequate and high-quality foods.

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