Karaga (NR), May 4, GNA - Dr. Elias Sory, Directory General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) 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 at the weekend. 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.