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| L-R: Prof. Chinyere Ezeaka, National President, Nigerian Society of Neonatal Medicine (NSONM); Prof. James Rener, Chairman, Nestle Nutrition Institute, Africa; Dr. Rizwan Yusuf, Category Manager, Maternal &Nutrition, Nestle, Nigeria; Mr. Mauricio Alarcon, Managing Director/CEO and Mrs. Onabajo Simidele, Representative of Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), at post-graduate programme in Pediatrics Nutrition in Lagos, recently. |
To tackle neonatal and infant mortality among
other poor health indices, some experts say that emphasis should be placed on
optimal nutrition education and counseling. They said that this must start with
exclusive breastfeeding.
According to them, a lot of issues around
nutrition will be resolved if nutrition education and counseling begins with
exclusive breastfeeding to address the needs of children from birth to 28 days
and subsequently as infant.
The experts spoke recently, during a “Symposium and Convocation of Post
Graduate Programme in Pediatric Nutrition,” an educational initiative supported
by Nestle Nutrition Institute, in association with Boston University School of
Medicine and Medinscribe, in Lagos.
Dr Chinyere Ezeaka, a Professor of Paediatrics,
University of Lagos,said, “Nutrition education is often a part of nutrition counseling session.”
Prof. Ezeaka said; “If everybody embarks on
optimal nutrition counseling and education, we would not be having a lot of
issues around nutrition. Nutrition counseling and education should start with
exclusive breastfeeding.”
She maintained that there is need to change food
practices and behaviours, as well as incorporate nutrition counseling and
education in health delivery services.
“Nutrition education is any “combination of
educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to
facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food and nutrition
related behaviours conducive to health and well-being.
“Nutrition and counseling education are used to
provide guidance to individuals on how to develop or change food practices and
behaviours to meet their nutritional requirements and improve their health,”
the Professor of Paediatrics said.
She lamented, “In spite of the benefits of
nutritional counseling, many physicians lack the requisite education and
training in medical nutrition therapy to counsel their patients and to ensure
continuity of nutrition care across healthcare providers.
“Therefore providing healthcare providers guidance
on nutrition counseling and education is of paramount importance.
“This is also where motivational interviewing
comes in.
“Motivational interviewing is a patient-centred
counseling style that seeks to elicit internal motivation to change their
behaviour and encourage them to understand and resolve their ambivalence about
behavioural change.
“Motivational interviewing is regarded as a
promising approach to nutrition counseling,’’ Ezeaka said.
Presenting
a paper on “Establishing
Healthy Food Habits in Children,”
Dr Clifford Lo, Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Children’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School, U.S, said it was
important to establish healthy food habits early in life.
Lo, who represented the Boston School of Medicine
, said, “The early years of life are characterised by rapid developmental
changes in eating habits.
“Infants begin to develop flavour preferences in
the utero, through the amniotic fluid, long before they taste solid food.
“Postnatally, flavour learning continues through
breast milk, with the introduction of complementary foods, infants further
develop food and flavour preferences.
“The dietary patterns learned during the early
years of life track into later childhood and adulthood and form the basis for
future eating patterns.
“Consequently, it is important to establish
healthy food habits and dietary habits early in life,” the Adjunct Professor of
Nutrition added.
According to him, healthy eating is essential to
obtaining adequate amounts of nutrients required for good health, growth and
development, as well as achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
Lo also said it was also essential to reducing the
risk of developing chronic diseases and premature mortality.
Responding, Chioma Emma-Nwachukwu, Manager,
Anglophone Speaking Countries, Central and West Africa, Nestle Nutrition
Institute Africa, said the programme would help equip healthcare providers with
needed knowledge on nutrition and associated issues.
“The healthcare professionals don’t have enough
nutrition training during their medical training, so, this programme is aimed
at closing the gap.
“It is aimed at ensuring that every healthcare
professional gets the right nutrition knowledge and is well equipped to make
the right decisions.”
Emma-Nwachukwu further said; “In Nigeria, there is
still opportunity to change the landscape on nutrition because there is a lot
of malnutrition and micronutrients deficiency.
“So, they need to equip our healthcare
professionals in the area of nutrition arise; this is also because investment
made in the first 1000 years has a multiplier effect in later life.”
She added, “In Nigeria alone, for this session, we
have trained over 300 healthcare professionals and the graduation is taking
place in Lagos and Abuja.
“We started the programme last year and more
participants have joined based on the good reports from the programme as a
result of the quality, modulus and relevance to their clinical practice.
“Since its inception, we have reached over 500
healthcare professionals and they in turn have reached over 6000 through their
step down activities,” Emma-Nwachukwu said.
Dr Osinowo
Opeyemi, one of the participants, praised the organisers of the
training.
According to her, malnutrition is a major problem
in this part of the world and it is better to start addressing it early from
childhood.
Dr
Opeyemi said she had learnt a lot and was well-equipped to provide
advice on nutrition matters.
