The Oyo State government, in support of good nutrition, has released N50 million to increase utilisation of qualitative, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years of age in the state under the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project.
ANRiN’s project coordinator, Dr. Khadaija Alarape, disclosed this at a one-day quarterly media engagement on infant and young child feeding practices to commemorate the World Breastfeeding Week.
Dr. Alarape said the state’s contribution to this project in the last three years has been consistent because of the priority the state government placed on the health of mothers and children in the state.
Alarape, a nutritionist, said that already Oyo’s investment in nutrition is paying off with the state’s exclusive breastfeeding rate consistently remaining high and almost 49.5 per cent of women now breastfeeding their babies exclusively for six months.
She declared that 59.1 per cent of these women that exclusively breastfeed their babies also continue to give breast milk and appropriate complementary food after six months.
She added that if the proposal to the state House of Assembly for extension of maternity leave to six months is accepted and adopted, it would further help in ensuring more than 60 per cent of children in Oyo State get exclusively breastfed.
Dr. Oluwaseun Ariyo, Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Ibadan, stated that the foundation of good health for children starts with the education and empowerment of women.
He stated that poor nutrition in a woman before and during pregnancy can induce short-term and long-lasting changes in the size, composition and metabolic responsive of her offspring as well as malnutrition and iron deficiency anaemia in her.
Dr. Ariyo, however, declared that no single food by itself, except breast milk, provides all the nutrients in the right amount and therefore, recommended diet diversity to prevent micronutrient malnutrition.
He charged the media to pass the right information to influence appropriate nutritional changes to promote health in the country.
Earlier, the coordinator, CS-SUNN, Oyo State chapter, Mr Olusegun Adio, lauded the state government for the approval and the prompt release of N50 million to boost nutrition interventions in the state.
He asked the media to propagate the benefits of folic acid intake in pregnancy to prevent birth defects in newborns.