The Nestlé Nutrition Institute Africa (NNIA) presented a paper on “Maternal and Infant Nutrition, the first 1000 days of life” at the sixth African Nutrition Epidemiology Conference held from the 21 to the 25 July 2014 in Accra on the theme of “Food and Nutrition Security in Africa: New Challenges for Sustainability”.
Speaking at the NNIA symposium, Mrs. Gladys Peprah Boateng, member of the NNIA and the Chief Dietician at the Dietherapy Unit of the 37 Military Hospital, Ghana, highlighted that malnutrition remains an issue of immense public health concern worldwide.
“Globally malnutrition claims the lives of 2.6 million children annually. Malnourished children who survive are more frequently sick and suffer the life-long consequences of impaired physical and cognitive development. The first 1000 days of life, which covers pre-pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life, has been identified as a unique window of opportunity to maximize the potential of lives; adequate nutritional care during this period has proven to have long term benefits both for the individual and the nation”, she added.
The conference, organized by the African Nutrition Society, was attended by stakeholders from academia, healthcare professionals, government and non-governmental agencies. It comes one week ahead of World Breastfeeding Week, which will take place from the 1st to the 7th of August 2014.
