MEETING THE DIETARY NEEDS OF AFRICAN CHILDREN

Food, as it’s known for, is one of the most important things for man and animal living on Earth. Food is not only needed to restore life as it were but, also for proper growth and development of the body. Therefore, for food to achieve these key objectives it must be supplied at the right quantity and containing all the necessary nutrients in the right amount. Good food is the one that contains the required level of energy, protein, vitamins, minerals, fats, and fiber that meet the dietary needs of different age groups. The inability of food to meet these nutritional demands may result in different nutritional deficiencies evident mostly in children. Some of which are: rickets, kwashiorkor, stunted growth, weak immune system, poor mental development, and the likes. Children with these deficiencies are said to be suffering from malnutrition. Children suffering from malnutrition are prone to many disease-causing agents.

In Africa, research showed that close to 60 million children are malnourished and this is due to the kind of food available in their various regions. It should be noted, however, that malnutrition in these African children are caused by a number of factors. Some of which are: poverty, hunger, extreme weather conditions like drought, famine, war and natural disaster which have threatened food security in the continent over the years. These factors mentioned here reduce the accessibility of African children to nutritious food needed for the efficient growth and development of the body. Moreover, the crop distribution across Africa has also contributed to the type of food children have access to and this most times need to be supplemented with food from other sources to meet their dietary needs.

Having said all these on foods, its objectives, nutritional needs and major causes of malnutrition in African children, let’s briefly take a look at the percentage of death caused by undernutrition in children under 5 Africa below:

Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition dataset, September 2016 update

WAY OUT TO MEETING THESE DIETARY NEEDS OF AFRICAN CHILDREN

To end this, it would make sense to look into some of the ways we can meet these nutrient needs of children;

Since children tend to have access to mostly food from crops predominate in their regions, the effort has been made through crop breeding to incorporate some of these essential nutrients lacking in some of these crops or increase the level at which they supply these essential nutrients. Therefore, these bred crops with essential nutrients should be introduced to the necessary regions with high numbers of malnourished children to include in their diets.  Furthermore, in countries suffering from drought and war, food intervention programs should be put in place to carter for the food needs of the victims especially the children to ensure they eat nourishing food at all times. Not only that, poverty alleviation initiatives should be encouraged in Africa sub-region because poverty contributes largely to the number of malnourished children in Africa.

Nonetheless, adequate sensitization of African parents on the need for their children to eat nourishing foods is of utmost importance. If we must reduce malnutrition in African children, we must ensure parents get the right information on the nutritional needs of their children.