By
Murtala Muhammad
Severe Acute Malnutrition among children under the ages of five, is a condition caused by lack of nutrients and energy aggravated by economic difficulty due to inflation, and knowledge gap on healthy dieting.
The condition can be averted through good health and feeding practices such as early initiation of breast milk to infant at birth, adherence to six months exclusive breastfeeding and good complementary feeding using locally available food.
Against this background our correspondent Murtala Muhammad examined the condition in Bauchi state and the level of attention being rendered by government at all levels and the Implementing Partners’ intervention in that regard.
The number of severely malnourished children in Bauchi state is increasing every day, which may not be unconnected to the current country’s economic realities triggered by inflation, exposing many households difficulties in feeding their families with the needed nutritious food.
The situation, experts say if not adequately addressed through government support and people-centred policies, may lead to increased in the number of stunted, wasted and underweight children whose lives would continue to be at stake.
The National Demographic and Health Survey, 2024 reveals that Bauchi state is the highest in the north east with 62% stunting prevalence, while Gombe has 41%, Taraba 46%, Adamawa 49%, Borno 51% and Yobe 55%.
This shocking figure calls for urgent attention from the federal, state, and local government levels as well implementing partners to find lasting solutions in arresting the problem.
In response to the calls by stakeholders on the urgent need to ensure treatment for children suffering from the condition, the Bauchi State government and the twenty local government authorities have jointly contributed three hundred million naira to the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) as part of commitment to procure Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
The money was paid to the CNF and matched by the fund, as facilitated by the Bauchi Field Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, through tireless engagement with critical stakeholders such as state and local government authorities as well as the media.
This giant move led to the recent procurement and delivery of the over four thousand cartons of RUTF and more than fifteen thousand cartons of Small Quantity Lipid-based Nutrients Supplement (SQ-LNS) to treat and prevent Severe Acute Malnutrition among children of zero to five years.
The cartons of the RUTF and SQ-LNS were subsequently distributed across the twenty LGAs, depending on the number of children with the condition, which created demand in many communities with parents trooping to the centres for the life saving commodities.
During a monitoring visit by journalists to one of the IMAM Centres, A’isha Isa Yuguda Primary Health Cere Centre in Darazo LGA, a huge number of women was seen with their malnourished children being examined and given sachets of RUTF for use.
A mother of fifteen-months old baby, Khadija Salisu told Radio Nigeria that her child’s weight has improved from 4.5 to 5.4 kilogramme after they were their last visit to the centre, where they were given fourteen sachets of RUTF.
“I’m happy that my child’s condition is improving and optimistic that he would be more better in no distant time” she said
Another mother Suwaiba Ahmadu whose female child Rabi Ahmadu was 6.2kg and looks ok after their third visit, where the child weighs 8.4kg, expressing delight over the level of improvement within the short period of intervention.
For Fatima Adamu, a mother of one-year old child who is at the IMAM centre Darazo for the fourth week expressed delight that the child’s condition improved significantly asserting that every week she received fourteen sachets of RUTF.
The women described the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food as life saver and hope renewer.
The Nutrition Focal Person in Darazo LGA, Abdullahi Bello said the demand and acceptance for the RUTF in the IMAM Centre has tremendously increased due to economic problems faced by families, saying many of them cannot afford “Tom Brown”.
Abdullahi Bello who disclosed that the centre recently received two hundred cartons of the RUTF, noted that the it records three to four hundred clients every week, describing the number as overwhelming, and called for additional supplies to meet the demands.
