Agboola Bayo
A medical practitioner, Prof. Chinyere Ezeaka, has said that the country currently has the highest number of infant deaths in Africa with no fewer than 240,000 dying yearly.
Ezeaka disclosed this while speaking at a seminar entitled: “Maternal and Infant Nutrition: Taking Advantage of the Window of Opportunity in the First 1,000 days of Life” at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Moniya, Ibadan.
The Pediatrics expert from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) stressed that the highest infantile mortality in Africa could be traced to maternal malnutrition which often resulted to miscarriages, diarrhoea, anaemia, and weight loss in babies as well as jaundice, which could eventually result in brain damage for the new born.
She said: “Nigeria has the highest number of infant deaths in Africa. New born mortality is getting increasing as statistics has it that 700 new born die every day in Nigeria. That amounts to 240,000 in a year.”
Ezeaka pointed out at the seminar organised by Nestle Nutrition Institute Africa CWAR Advanced Nutrition Programme for Anglophone Countries that no fewer than 700 new born babies die on a daily basis.
She said “what a mother eats during pregnancy and after the child birth, as well as what the baby is fed with determines whether a baby would be categorised as a low-birth baby with less than 2,500 grammes weight or otherwise.”
She maintained that research had shown that all the diseases affecting adults, including ageing, depression, coronary infection, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and the rest were as a result of malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.
“Three major causes of infantile deaths are inability to breathe well, premature cases and infection. 90 per cent of all these are preventable, but if not taken care of, the MDGs 4 might not be achievable. The government at all levels and all stakeholders must be ready to formulate policies, build capacity of health workers, and build data to correct the identified anomalies.”
Another pediatrician from Ghana, Matilda Steinor-Asiedu, emphasised the importance of breast feeding, adding that “human breast feeding is richer in the brain forming fat than cow’s milk.”
“Cow milk is best for baby cows and human breast milk is best for human babies while human breast milk is hygienic capable of reducing infections,” she said.
The programme was attended by participants from Nigeria and other African countries to deliberate on the benefits of breast feeding to infants and the adverse effects of its non-compliance to the babies, the parents and the entire society.