The Directory General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Elias Sory, has advised authorities of the School Feeding programme to introduce fruits and vegetables into the diet of the children to ensure their healthy growth.
   
 They should also adopt the use of unadulterated local food to feed the children and stop resorting to foreign foods full of chemicals, so that children would not fall prey of malnutrition to affect their growth and academic work.
    
Dr. Sory was speaking at this year’s national launch of Child Health Promotion week at Karaga.

The programme was on the theme: "Good nutrition a key to child growth and development" and was meant to emphasise the need for Ghanaians to avoid the patronage of oily foods and eat locally grown ones to improve their health.
 
Dr. Sory, who deputised for the Minister of Health, Major Courage
Quashigah (Rtd) said children, by nature were vulnerable and needed good nutrition for a firm foundation for their survival to "cross the red border line" of five years and stress the need for parents to monitor the eating habits of their children.
   
He said the school-feeding programme was a good concept, but expressed fears that the right food supplements might not be given to the children saying; "It would be necessary to give the children fruits and vegetables on constant basis to improve the health status of the children."
    
He said infant mortality was on the ascendancy in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and parts of the Volta Regions due to malnutrition and called for an affirmative action to reverse the trend.

Dr. Sory said child health was one of the priority areas of the Ministry of Health and all national policies were directed towards eradicating extreme poverty and ill health among children.
   
He said after several years of implementing such policies children were still confronted with social and health challenges, which continued to attract the attention of the government.
   
According to him, about 54 per cent of all infant deaths in Ghana were as a result of malnutrition and about a quarter of infants between 0-5 years were underweight and this contributed to a high infant morbidity and mortality of 111 deaths per 1000 live births in the country.
   
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, who chaired the function appealed to fathers, particularly those in rural areas to give child and mother the necessary attention for their survival.
    
He said fruits and vegetables were in abundance in the Northern Region and advised parents to feed their children with fruits to ensure that they lived healthier lives.
    
Mr. Baba Wahab, Karaga District Chief Executive (DCE) in a welcoming address called for the upgrading of the Karaga District Hospital into a Polyclinic to deliver quality healthcare services to the people.

GNA