UNICEF donates therapeutic diets for child nutrition, in Bayelsa

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has donated therapeutic diets to lactating and expectant mothers (pregnant women) in Bayelsa.

Making the donations at the Primary Health Centre, Sagbama town, headquarters of the Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa, the Head, UNICEF, Port Harcourt field Office, Dr Anselem Audu, leading staff members of the UN agency, stated that the essence of the donations was to ameliorate the impact of the shortage of adequate nutrition for children in the area.

The UNICEF team was accompanied to the ancient town of Sagbama by officials from the state Ministry of Health.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted UNICEF as saying that data from its research and those from its partners show that Sagbama Local Government Area is amongst the worst hit by the 2022 ravaging floods which destroyed farmlands, leading to the high spate of malnourished children in the area.

Speaking against the background of malnutrition, Audu noted that UNICEF intends to replicate the same feat in other flood-impacted LGAs across the state.
He said the donations of the therapeutic diets was not the agency’s first intervention upon the devastating 2022 floods in Bayelsa.

Audu said that therapeutic diets are usually a modification of regular diets, and that in administering therapeutic diets, modifications are done in nutrients, texture as well as food allergies and food intolerance.

He said therapeutic diets are meals planned to enable and control the intake of certain foods and nutrients.

“Therapeutic diets are used as part of the treatment of certain medical conditions, especially in children.

“These diets are prescribed by physicians and are planned by nutrition specialists,” he explained.