The Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) in Nigeria Chairman Ejike Oji says family planning can prevent stunted growth in children.

Oji made the comment yesterday in an interview with journalists in Abuja. He said children’s brain development occurr in the first 1,000 days of their birth, adding that a child’s inability to access certain diets could result in stunted growth.

He said: “Homes without family planning can be in poverty which is likely to cause a shortage in supply of some food items needed for the child’s brain development.”

Oji explained that a lot of children had been subjected to avoidable anatomical and economic deformities due to a lack of family planning.

The chairman said family planning could boost both parents’ income and positively impact the children. He said spacing children’s birth was key to the economic viability of both homes and nations and urged families to take up family planning services.