The United Nations Children Fund UNICEF, said 49 per cent of children under the age of five in Nigeria do not grow well as they are either stunted, wasted or overweight.
UNICEF Nigeria said this in a statement and added that malnutrition remains a major public health and development concern.
It said breastfeeding can save lives but regretted that only 27 per cent of children under six months of age were exclusively breastfed and an increasing number of children were fed infant formula.
UNICEF warned that poor eating and feeding practices started from the earliest days of children’s life put them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases death.
It said the malnutrition level in the country should be tackled and appealed to government, private sector, donors, parents, families and businesses to help children grow healthy.
UNICEF said healthy food environments for children and adolescents should be built by using proven approaches such as accurate and easy-to-understand labelling and stronger controls on marketing unhealthy foods.
