Health
LASG deploys health workers to tackle childhood malnutrition
Ayoola Babalola
The Lagos State Government has stepped up community-level interventions for children affected by malnutrition, deploying health workers to selected primary healthcare centres in Health District V to identify vulnerable children, demonstrate the use of food supplements and provide nutritional support to their caregivers.
The five-day intervention, which began on Monday and ends Friday, is being implemented by the Directorate of Nursing Services of Lagos State Health District V across selected communities in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo and Olorunda local government areas.
The programme covers Amukoko Primary Healthcare Centre in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Sagbokoji in Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo Local Government Primary Healthcare Centre and Ilogbo Primary Healthcare Centre in Olorunda Local Council Development Area.
Rather than limiting the intervention to the distribution of supplements, health officials said the programme was designed to combine practical demonstrations, caregiver education and follow-up with nutritional support, reflecting the importance of detecting and managing malnutrition at the primary healthcare level.
Speaking during the intervention, the Director, Medical Services and Disease Control, Lagos State Health District V, Dr Ahmad Bello, who represented the Permanent Secretary of the district, Dr Oladapo Asiyanbi, stressed that early identification was critical to preventing malnutrition from undermining children’s growth and development.
Bello said adequate nutrition went beyond ensuring that children had enough food, noting that proper nutrition was essential to their physical development, cognitive wellbeing and overall health.
She said strengthening nutrition services at primary healthcare centers would enable health workers to identify affected children earlier and ensure that they received appropriate intervention and continued monitoring.
The official said the community-based approach was particularly important because primary healthcare facilities remained the point of contact between the health system and families in many communities.
The intervention included practical demonstrations showing caregivers how to prepare and administer food supplements appropriately, after which supplements were distributed to children identified as needing nutritional support.
Caregivers were also counselled on appropriate feeding practices and the need to maintain nutritional care beyond the immediate intervention.
The emphasis on caregiver participation, health officials said, was intended to ensure that nutritional support continued at home rather than ending with the distribution of supplements at the health facility.
Also speaking, the Director of Nursing Services, Lagos State Health District V, Nurse Mofunlewi Stella, said nurses and other frontline health workers had a particularly important role to play in tackling childhood malnutrition because of their proximity to families and communities.
She said frontline workers were often in the best position to identify children showing signs of nutritional vulnerability, monitor their progress and ensure that cases requiring further intervention were not lost to follow-up.
Stella urged caregivers to follow the guidance provided by health professionals and pay closer attention to the quality and balance of meals given to children.
She stressed that the use of supplements should not be regarded as a substitute for appropriate feeding, adding that sustained care and monitoring were necessary to achieve meaningful nutritional improvement.
The intervention therefore places the primary healthcare centre at the centre of a continuum of care that begins with identification and nutritional assessment and extends to caregiver education, supplementation and follow-up.
Asiyanbi, who reaffirmed the district’s commitment to reducing childhood malnutrition, said the health authorities would continue to work with healthcare professionals, frontline workers and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen practices that promote proper nutrition.
He stressed that tackling malnutrition required sustained community-level action rather than isolated interventions.
According to him, strengthening community-based nutrition programmes remained critical to protecting children’s health, growth and development and reducing the wider burden of malnutrition on families and society.
The intervention forms part of the health and environment component of the Lagos State Government’s T.H.E.M.E.S+ development agenda under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
For Health District V, the emphasis on primary healthcare is significant because interventions at that level can bring nutritional services closer to households and allow health workers to identify vulnerable children before nutritional problems become more severe.
The district said it would continue to collaborate with healthcare workers and other stakeholders to promote appropriate nutrition practices and strengthen measures aimed at preventing and managing childhood malnutrition across its communities.
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