By Mogbonjubade Adesulure
A mother watched her baby get weak to the point that he couldn't even sit up, until lifesaving care changed the course of his story. How did this happened?
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Baby Musa* is a lovely and pleasant child with a beautiful smile. But since his birth, he has struggled with frequent illness, often battling cough, fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea during his first six months.
Since I gave birth to this child, he hasn’t been fully healthy,” his mother shared. “Today he will have catarrh, tomorrow he is vomiting… he has always had a cough.
On one particularly difficult day, Musa* fell seriously ill. He became so weak that he could not even sit up. The experience was one no mother should face. Her child was burning with fever, crying and coughing at night.
Musa* Mogbonjubade/Save the Children
Yesterday he was coughing in the night and crying... then he woke up from sleep with fever causing him not to even sit up right. - Fatima*
Musa* was too weak to rest, unable even to sit upright. there was uncertainty, no clear understanding yet of what was going on.
“Yesterday… by this time, we didn’t know what we were facing,” she narrated.
Fatima* sought help. She brought him to a Save the Children-supported stabilisation centre where he was diagnosed with Severe Acute Malnutrition and Pneumonia, illnesses no child should have to suffer from. At the centre, her baby received timely, multi-sectoral, gender sensitive high quality lifesaving care with support from the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund.
“They gave us medicine”... They gave him injections… they gave us medicine orally and today again in the morning.” - Fatima*
Musa* and his mother with a health provider
With free medical and nutritional care, including counselling on complementary feeding and hygiene practices given to the little baby at the centre, he is now recovering.
The change is clear!
His mother tells us, “Yesterday, it was something else… but now he is doing very well.” When asked how she feels now, she says. “I am very happy.”
Musa and his mother Mogbonjubade/Save the Children
“I am thankful,” she says softly. “I am thankful because my son is feeling better.”
This moment is more than relief. It is a reminder of what timely, integrated lifesaving intervention means and can do for families across communities in Nigeria. The SCI supported Centre Borno provides free treatment for children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and other common childhood illnesses. Musa* is one of the many children that has received integrated, multi-sectoral, gender sensitive lifesaving medical and nutritional interventions aimed at ensuring no child dies before their 5th birthday.
*Named changed
Photo credits: Mogbonjubade
