Dr. Ayodele Renner is a child health advocate, medical doctor and consultant paediatrician with at least 11 years of active clinical work, research and training. He is also a social media influencer and health content creator. Known on Instagram as The Noisy Naija Paediatrician, for the past six years, he has consistently used the platform to disseminate free healthcare information and education to parents and care givers on the health of children making him an influential voice on and off social media in childcare and children’s health. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from the University of Lagos and is a Fellow West African College of Physicians in Medicine (FWACP). For his work in the field of paediatrics, he was nominated for “The Force of Wellness” awards at the Trend Up Awards in 2023 and for “Health Influencer of the Year” at the Private Sector Health Awards in 2023. He is also a co-founder of Agnosys Care on Demand, a digital health platform, that provides tech driven health solutions for businesses, physicians and patients to provide consistent and quality assured vaccination and home nursing, and consultation services. In this interview, Dr. Renner speaks about his advocacy drive and empowering mothers especially with the right information to help their children thrive.

What’s the story behind the name, ‘The Noisy Naija Paediatrician’ and how does it reflect your advocacy style?
The Noisy Naija Paediatrician, came from the fact that first, I’m very proud to be Nigerian and I wanted that to reflect in the work that I was doing because our problems in Nigeria, as far as I’m concerned, are very unique. I also think we have a very unique style of approaching everything that we do. Then, of course, I’m a paediatrician, but the noisy, I think, is the really interesting part because when I started creating content, I did it in a very conventional way – sit and talk to people in a way that a doctor regularly would give them the facts and I realised that there was actually quite a lot of noise on Instagram. When I started, there were comedians, there were celebrities, cooking influencers, and all sorts of different genres of content that was being created. And I felt like if I wanted to be visible for the kind of information that I was going to be passing across, then I needed to be louder. And so that’s how the noisy aspect of things came in and it stuck. And when it comes to how it reflects my content creation style for advocacy, I think it can be very difficult to get the attention of people in this era where social media is so fast-paced and content is curated to ensure that you are moving through as many content options as possible. You need to do something that catches the attention of the audience. So, my style is reflected in my laugh out loud gags. I try to make sure that I do things that are relatable for the mothers because that’s primarily my audience.

At what point in your medical career did you decide that advocacy beyond clinical practice was necessary for protecting children’s health?
This was in 2017 when a well-educated woman asked me if she could give water to her baby that she was exclusively breastfeeding. I thought that this was information that was common, but of course, she got the information from her mother who had said that she still needed to give baby water even though she was exclusively breastfeeding. And I thought to myself, if she doesn’t know this, then there might be quite a handful of mothers who also do not. And as I created more content, I realised that if one mother complaints of a problem, then you can be sure that a hundred of others have the same problem. And so, each time I would create content and I’d see the number of comments. At the time, there weren’t very many comments, but I thought that it was quite gratifying to see that people could relate and could resonate with the information that I was providing. And so, I realised that I reach many more people doing advocacy online for children’s health, children’s rights, awareness on children’s health conditions and how to manage them, preventive measures for children’s illnesses. I realised that it could go much further doing this online than doing it in my clinical practice, where I’d be able to interact with only one patient at a time. And since 2017, it has been quite a journey of encouragement, impact, information, complete reconfiguration and reimagining of what healthcare education can be online for children’s health and what advocacy can look like when it is done in a humorous and exciting way.

In your view, what are the most pressing health challenges facing Nigerian children today?
In my view, the most pressing health challenges facing Nigerian children today are quite numerous, but I’ll try to just summarise a few of them. First of all, we still have a challenge with vaccine-preventable diseases like pneumonia, like diarrhoea, meningitis and measles. And this is because coverage for immunisation is still below what is recommended by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF for a lot of reasons, including ignorance, poverty, conflict, lack of access to health care. These challenges cost the Nigerian child a significant number of lives annually. And so, you have a lot of children dying below the age of five or before they hit their fifth birthday. Sickle cell anaemia is another one that is quite challenging and so common because Nigeria has the largest population of Sickle cell anaemic children globally. Malaria, another huge burden because malaria really is quite a significant contributor to under five mortality especially diarrheal illness, it’s particularly painful because it’s so preventable. And the private sector health alliance of Nigeria, of which I’m a volunteer, is trying to save 100,000 lives of Nigerian children through its introduction of Oral Rehydration Solution, which is a very simple method of preventing dehydration and death from malaria, as well as zinc. And this is such a laudable initiative that I’m proud to be supporting. So, malnutrition as well is another significant challenge that Nigerian children are facing. Nigeria is the stunting capital of the world, meaning that in no other country are children having lower height for their age than is expected. So, of course, malnutrition is tightly interwoven with problems like poverty, ignorance, lack of education on the part of parents of what to feed their children and how to feed their children.

Many parents today rely on social media for health information. How do you balance being a credible medical voice with the need to be engaging in the digital space?
I have been quite vocal about combating misinformation because misinformation is not as harmless. Misinformation and myths are really not as harmless as you one might imagine they are. So, for instance, the idea that babies’ require menthol to be rubbed on their hands and feet to keep them warm is a myth that can have catastrophic consequences. Because some newborns can have a condition that we call Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD deficiency). When these children are exposed to things like menthol, their red blood cells can break down, leading them to have very low blood levels and high levels of jaundice that can cause catastrophic brain damage. So, this brain damage can be lifelong and can cause a significant amount of pain, stress, and financial burden for the parents. And so, this is something that we try to advise, teach and preach against. From things like people using toothpaste on the umbilical cord of their babies to clean, which can actually also lead to infections of the umbilical cord. These are just some of the myths that can expose children and babies to significant harm. Another one is the idea that teething causes symptoms like fever. And so, a lot of parents might sit at home and convince themselves that the fever that this child is having is teething and not present to the hospital until the child has become significantly ill. And so, these are some of the myths and poor healthcare education can lead to very unpalatable outcomes for Nigerian children. But one hopes that with the advocacy and the information that one puts out that some of these myths can be debunked and better practices can be instituted for Nigerian children by their parents and caregivers.

What policy changes would have the most immediate and long-term impact on child health outcomes in the country?
So, policies. I think first and foremost, access to universal health care for children. Basic universal healthcare for children, I think, would be one of the most impactful policies that could improve outcomes for Nigerian children across board. Whether it’s newborn, under-fives, even into their childhood years. Free access to health care would improve financial accessibility to care. Unfortunately, poverty plays a significant role in how children fare because poverty is closely linked to malnutrition, lack of education, harmful medical practices. And so, I think if poverty could be alleviated to a significant degree, Nigerian children would fare better. Then, of course, while it’s not directly related to health, pre-basic education for Nigerian children would go a long way to ensure that they acquire the skills and the knowledge to help them raise their own children well. And this is a long-term investment to say that if we educate the girl child, if we implement policies that avoid and discourage things like child labour, that protect the child from sexual and physical abuse, then the Nigerian child will thrive much more.

Advocacy often means challenging entrenched beliefs. How do you engage communities and parents who may be skeptical of modern medical advice?
Yes, advocacy really does mean challenging strongly held beliefs, some of which are generally false and possibly harmful. Engaging communities involves me engaging communities both online and offline. I am always more than happy to get invited to forums where I can speak with mothers, speak with grandmothers, caregivers, parents, and educate and enlighten them on the most important aspects of childcare that that are generally misunderstood. I was also able to create an event called the Baby Convention, an annual event for parents, caregivers and players in the industry that involves childcare, child raising, and child healthcare, come together to have discussions about the most important topics from breastfeeding, nutrition and feeding of toddlers, autism, and children living with disabilities. It’s a continuous process and one cannot relent in continuously providing healthcare information and advocacy for children in every aspect of child health.

You’ve used humour and “noise” to reach people. How effective has that been in changing mindsets about child health?
In using humour to provide healthcare information, it has been wildly and immensely effective because it’s an approach that is rather unconventional and novel, and the audience has found it to be extremely engaging. And it’s engaging for me as well because the process of creating content that is funny, relatable, educative, that passes the information on in a non-threatening manner is something I immensely enjoy. And so, this has been quite a journey. In creating content since 2017, my style has evolved from speaking directly to the people to creating skits, short drama sketches, then occasional collaborations. So, the reception, I think, has been very kind, very generous. And my voice has been able to create awareness around child health and child health-related issues. I really am very grateful for my community and for everyone that has managed to view my work and promote it by sharing, commenting, liking, and members of the press that have also spotlighted me on their various platforms to create awareness on various child health care topics. I do hope I can continue to be as humorous as possible. It can be challenging sometimes to continue to create consistently, particularly when one doesn’t feel inspired or the subject matter isn’t particularly humourous. These are some of the challenges that exist in the space of creating content that is funny and yet educative, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What message would you give to every Nigerian parent?
First of all, you are doing a good job, just keep at it. Children are the greatest investment that you will make and their health is the greatest investment in them that you will make, both in the short term and the long term. Get knowledgeable, look for accurate information and apply it to the health of your children, whether it’s in the realm of nutrition, infection prevention, exercise, play and physical activity, learning. There is no substitute to being knowledgeable in making the right decisions for your children.