Fiji is confronting a deepening childhood malnutrition crisis, with 63 percent of children under five now affected, National Food and Nutrition Centre Manager Kriti Prasad warned on Monday. Prasad said the country’s malnutrition challenge is not limited to stunting but also includes widespread anaemia and other micronutrient deficiencies that threaten young children’s growth and development.
Prasad pointed to findings from Fiji’s last National Nutrition Survey in 2015, which highlighted the early introduction of complementary foods and a lack of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months as central drivers of poor infant nutrition. “Infants miss essential nutrients when other foods are introduced too early,” she said, underlining that inappropriate feeding practices remain a major barrier to better child health outcomes.
The Nutrition Centre is preparing a fresh national nutrition survey this year — the first in a decade — which Prasad said will use a random selection methodology to provide updated, nationally representative data. Officials expect the new survey to give policymakers a clearer picture of current trends and to guide targeted interventions to reduce malnutrition among infants and young children.
Alongside the decade-survey, Fiji has launched a national STEP survey that has already begun offering insights into dietary behaviours, including consumption patterns of sugar-sweetened beverages. Prasad flagged this as an important piece of the picture: poor-quality diets, including high consumption of sugary drinks, can contribute both to undernutrition and to overweight and obesity, depending on the balance and variety of foods children receive.
Prasad described common feeding problems observed when children transition to solid foods: meals that are of the wrong consistency, lack of dietary variety, or insufficient nutrient density. Those practices, she said, can result in a spectrum of outcomes — children becoming underweight through chronic nutrient shortfalls or, conversely, becoming overweight or obese when diets are energy-dense but nutrient-poor.
Addressing the crisis, Prasad urged a three-pronged approach: improving infant and young child feeding practices through caregiver education, expanding access to nutritious and diverse foods, and running public-awareness campaigns to promote healthier diets. She stressed that tackling anaemia and micronutrient gaps will require concerted action across health, agriculture and social services to ensure children receive the vitamins and minerals they need in the critical early years.
The announcement of the 63 percent figure and the initiation of updated national surveys mark the latest development in Fiji’s efforts to quantify and respond to childhood malnutrition. The forthcoming survey results are expected to shape policy decisions and programme planning aimed at reversing current trends and improving child health across the nation.
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