Glory Uzoigwe is a maternal and paediatric nutrition and health coach. With a Masters Degree from the United States in Nutrition Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, the Certified Autism Specialist champions nutrition-led interventions for children with diet-induced allergies, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Autism Spectrum conditions. Uzoigwe is the founder of Wholesome Maternal Nutrition and Managing Director of Cheersandsunshine Nigeria Limited. In this interview, she speaks on her passion for motherhood and food safety education.

Take us back to the beginning. What first drew you to maternal and paediatric nutrition, and when did you realise this was the work you wanted to build your career around?

My path here wasn’t a straight line, and I think that’s exactly why it feels so personal. I studied Microbiology for my first degree; I was very interested in food microbiology. I was very fascinated with the invisible world, the organisms that break down these foods that we consume and systems that quietly decide whether a body thrives or struggles.

When I became a mother, that fascination turned into something urgent. I was raising boys and watching, up close, how directly what goes into a child’s body shapes their mood, their focus, their growth and even how they sleep at night. That personal experience pushed me to go back to school for a Master’s in Nutrition Sciences and a Master’s Certificate in Infant and Young Child Feeding in the United States, and later a Diploma in Nutrition and Health Coaching. Around the same period, I also stepped into the role of Managing Director at Cheers and Sunshine, a company that imports and distributes baby and maternal products across Nigeria, and that role put me in daily conversation with mothers making real purchasing decisions for their children.

Listening to their worries, their confusion over labels, and their questions about what was actually worth their money added another layer to everything I was learning academically. Somewhere in that season, mixing motherhood, formal study and those conversations with mothers, I stopped seeing nutrition as a subject I was learning and started seeing it as the work I was meant to do. It became less about a career decision and more about a calling I couldn’t ignore.

What gaps did you observe in the way Nigerian families access and understand nutrition that inspired you to establish Wholesome Maternal Nutrition?

I kept noticing the same pattern with mothers around me and with clients in the early days of my practice. There was either too little information, or there was an overwhelming flood of it, most of it copied from foreign sources with no thought for what a Nigerian household actually looks like or can afford.

Mothers were being told to source ingredients that don’t exist in our markets, or to follow feeding advice that ignored our climate, our food culture and our budgets. My work as Managing Director at Cheers and Sunshine made this gap even more visible to me, because I would watch mothers stand in front of shelves of imported baby food and formula, genuinely unsure which product their child actually needed versus which one simply had the loudest packaging.

On top of all this, there was very little support for families whose children had allergies, ADHD or were on the autism spectrum. Those parents were often left to figure things out alone, sometimes chasing claims online that promised cures nutrition simply cannot deliver. Our company, Wholesome Maternal Nutrition, grew out of wanting to close that gap, to give Nigerian mothers guidance that is evidence-based but also lived in, something that respects our food, our budgets and our realities.

You work with children dealing with diet-induced allergies, ADHD and autism spectrum conditions. What role can nutrition realistically play in supporting these children, and where should parents be cautious about claims that food can ‘cure’ these conditions?

Nutrition can be genuinely powerful here, but it plays a supporting role, not a curing one, and I say that clearly to every family I work with. For children with diet-induced allergies, identifying and removing the actual trigger foods can bring real relief to their skin, their gut and their comfort. For children with ADHD or autism, thoughtful nutrition can help manage inflammation, support gut health, steady blood sugar and, in some children, ease sensory or behavioural friction.

What it cannot do is reverse autism or erase ADHD, and any practitioner who tells a parent otherwise is selling false hope. I always encourage parents to be cautious of anyone promising a food or supplement that will cure their child. The honest, responsible approach is to use nutrition alongside therapy, medical care and the child’s full support team, not as a replacement for any of it.

How can Nigerian mothers provide nutritious meals for their children without feeling pressured to adopt expensive or entirely foreign diets?

I always begin by reminding mothers that nutrient density is not determined by geography. Some of the most valuable sources of iron, protein, folate, and healthy fats a growing child needs are already staples in a typical Nigerian kitchen, ugu and ewedu for their micronutrient content, beans and groundnuts as accessible plant proteins, fish and eggs for high-quality protein and essential fatty acids, and tubers like yam and plantain as reliable energy sources.

My guidance to families is rarely to replace what they already cook, it is to refine it. That might mean adjusting oil quantities, increasing the proportion of vegetables in a soup, or introducing greater variety across the week so a child’s nutrient intake is broader rather than repetitive.

In a country where food prices continue to put pressure on household budgets, how can families provide balanced nutrition without breaking the bank?

I tell families that balance is more about planning than spending. Buying seasonal produce, shopping at local markets rather than relying only on supermarkets, and cooking in batches all stretch a food budget further than people expect. Protein doesn’t have to mean expensive cuts of meat, eggs, beans, groundnuts and locally sourced fish are affordable and nutrient-rich.

I also encourage mothers to reduce waste by planning meals around what’s already in the kitchen instead of buying impulsively. And honestly, a lot of nutritional value gets lost through overcooking or excess frying, so simply adjusting how a meal is prepared more steaming, less deep frying, shorter cooking times for vegetables can improve what a family gets nutritionally from the same money they’re already spending.

From pregnancy to postpartum, what nutritional mistakes do you see women making most frequently, and what would you advise them to do differently?

The most common mistake is treating pregnancy nutrition as something that ends the moment the baby arrives. Women pour so much attention into what they eat while carrying the pregnancy, then almost abandon that care once postpartum begins, at exactly the moment their body needs support to heal, produce milk and recover its strength. I also see women under-eating out of fear of retaining weight, or skipping meals because they’re overwhelmed with a newborn, when what their body actually needs is consistent, nutrient-dense meals.

Another frequent gap is iron and protein intake dropping off after delivery, even though blood loss during birth makes those two things more important than ever. My advice is always the same, postpartum is not the time to shrink your plate, it’s the time to nourish deliberately, with food that supports healing, hormone balance and breastfeeding if that’s the mother’s choice.

With thousands of imported baby and maternal products available to parents, how do you determine which products are genuinely safe, necessary and worth recommending?

I approach it the way my training in food safety and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems taught me to, by checking the evidence rather than the marketing. I look at the actual ingredient list, not the claims on the packaging. I check whether a product has been assessed by a recognised regulatory body, whether the age recommendations are backed by clinical guidance, and whether it’s actually solving a real need or simply capitalising on parental anxiety.

A lot of what’s marketed to Nigerian parents is unnecessary, some of it is even unsafe for the age group it targets. I would rather recommend fewer products that are genuinely useful than a long list that sounds impressive but adds cost and confusion to a mother’s life.

What are some food-safety practices Nigerian parents may overlook that could put babies and young children at risk?

Improper storage of prepared baby food, leaving it out too long or reheating it multiple times, is one of the most common risks I see. Water safety is another, many parents assume boiling water once is enough regardless of the source, without considering how it’s stored afterwards. Cross-contamination in the kitchen, using the same board or knife for raw meat and a baby’s vegetables, is often overlooked too. And with complementary feeding, some parents introduce foods that pose choking hazards, like whole grapes or hard nuts, before a child is developmentally ready to handle them. None of these come from carelessness, they come from not knowing, which is exactly why food safety education needs to be part of every conversation we have with new parents, not an afterthought.

Behind the professional credentials and businesses is a woman who has had to build and lead. What has entrepreneurship taught you about yourself?

Entrepreneurship stripped away any illusion I had about needing to feel completely ready before stepping forward. I’ve learned that I’m far more resilient than I gave myself credit for, and that patience is a skill you build under pressure, not one you arrive with fully formed. Leading a team, sourcing products responsibly, building a practice from nothing but trust and word of mouth, all of it taught me to hold high standards for myself without letting perfectionism paralyse me.

It also taught me humility, because the moment you think you’ve figured it all out, the business or your clients will show you exactly how much more there is to learn. If anything, entrepreneurship has shown me that I can carry more than I once believed, as long as I stay honest about when I need to ask for help.

There is growing pressure on mothers to be ‘perfect’, from what they eat during pregnancy to how they feed and raise their children. Do you think this pressure is fair, and how do you help the mothers you work with navigate it?

I don’t think it’s fair at all, and honestly, I think it does real harm. Motherhood today comes with an audience, social media, extended family, even well-meaning strangers, all offering opinions on what a mother should be eating, feeding or doing at any given moment. That pressure often has very little to do with what’s actually good for the child and much more to do with performing an image of perfection.

In my practice, the first thing I try to give mothers is permission, permission to make informed choices without guilt, permission to not follow every trend, permission to feed their children with what’s realistic for their household rather than what looks impressive online. I remind them that consistency matters far more than perfection, a handful of nourishing habits practised steadily will always outweigh an unattainable standard chased anxiously. My role isn’t to add to the noise, it’s to hand mothers something calmer, evidence they can trust and grace they can hold on to.

Beyond the businesses and professional titles, what do you hope women and mothers remember about Glory Uzoigwe and the work you are building?

I hope they remember that I see them, not as clients or customers, but as women carrying a lot, often quietly. Beyond the certifications and the businesses, what I care about most is that a mother who has sat across from me, or read my work, or shopped through Cheers and Sunshine, walked away feeling a little less alone and a little more capable. I want to be remembered as someone who made nutrition and motherhood feel less like a performance and more like something achievable, rooted in our culture, respectful of our budgets and honest about what actually works. I think especially of mothers navigating with autistic and ADHD children who has quietly been made to feel responsible for their children’s diagnosis.

I want those mothers to know they were never alone in it, and that their child’s difference was never their fault to carry. I sincerely hope that mothers who encounter my work leave feeling informed rather than judged and supported rather than pressured. If I am remembered for anything, I hope it is for choosing honesty over trends and gentleness over guilt, and for building work that genuinely serves and supports families.