Why I’m Very Passionate about Nigerian Children- Dr. Gbemisola Boyede

For the almost forty million children in Nigeria, there is no denying the fact that there is a huge gap between health caregivers and patients, especially when it comes to issues wellness. The reason is simple- there are less than one thousand Paediatricians and healthcare providers nationwide to cater for and address the thorny issues of children-related health. Tucked in the midst of these medical practitioners are few outstanding Paediatricians who do not only practice as professionals but much more as Changemakers in this special field. One of them is the ever-bubbling, resourceful, pragmatic and graceful founder of Ask The Paediatrician Foundation; Dr. Gbemisola Boyede, a Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician at The Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria.  

Dr. Gbemi, as she is fondly called is a Paediatrician of repute, a much-sought after medical practitioner who demonstrates uncommon passion and commitment to the wellbeing of Nigerian children. For her, being a Paediatrician is more than a job; it is a life and calling; hence she has taken her practice beyond the borders of healthcare centres to the streets and slums. Through her online platform on Facebook, she has been able to provide guidance and support to over 250, 000 Nigerian mothers and their children. Her offline medical outreach to under-developed communities has equally brought remarkable intervention and help to thousands of indigent children in Lagos State.

Speaking recently on the state of the health of many Nigerian children, Boyede expressed deep concern at the fact that “child mortality statistics in Nigeria is high and most of the deaths are highly preventable and often due to easily treatable diseases through readily available and cost effective interventions.”
Her words, “I realised the gap is ignorance. So, I decided to contribute my quota by providing evidence-based health information to mothers and other caregivers of our children through Ask The Paediatrician platform.  I am driven by passion to see our children live and not die from unnecessary and preventable deaths.”

Dr. Gbemi Boyede berated the fact that many mothers in Nigeria are ignorant of issues of their children’s health; hence they base their decisions on assumption and sometimes take decisions that are harmful to their wards.

Cross session of children receiving treatment at Ijegun

“As a doctor who specializes in taking care of children, I have seen Mums made decisions that have had negative impact on the health of their children due to either lack of information or misinformation. I know many, if not all, mums love their children and want the very best for them at all times. Unfortunately, many times mums go to fellow mums to ask for advice and information about the health of their children. Some of these experienced mums are at times also not very well-informed and sincerely give advice, which at times are wrong with serious consequences.”
To address this problem, Boyede established Ask the Paediatrician on 20^th July 2015 as an avenue to give online health education to Mums, Dads and Caregivers who are seeking sincere advice or need information.

“Ask The Paediatrician helps bridge the gap by addressing the common child health issues mums must know about and also address their questions and concerns from a child’s health professional viewpoint”, she said.

Her intense passion also took her beyond the online platform to reach out to Mums that are offline or uneducated, especially those in the remote and indigent communities and that was what birthed the idea of Ask The Paediatrician Community Medical Outreaches.

Recalling some of the successes recorded, Boyede says, “we have had two successful community medical outreaches to Makoko and Ijegun. We answer close to 1000 questions weekly on Facebook. Daily we get testimonies of impacted members who freely share them with us.  I remember a recent one....a mother who posted a picture of her son who has severe malnutrition. We did not only counsel, I made personal effort to reach her via inbox chat and phone call and eventually got her to bring the child to my hospital for admission. One of our members provided support financially and the child was managed successfully. I followed up on discharge as well. The baby in February weighed 4.2kg but by May 2017, he weighed 8.6kg!! A wonderful transformation!  The mother was so grateful.”

“I remembered a set of triplets too in Ibadan. By the time the concerned neighbour posted, one of them had died...We swung in and the two were supported morally and the two were supported morally and financially for a successful management at UCH! They recovered and did well. There are many more such testimonies of those who, based on our counsel and advice did so well and their children survived and escaped deaths. ”, she added.

Today being its 2^nd anniversary Ask The Paediatrician has metamorphosed into a full-fledged Not-for-Profit Non-Governmental Organization. In addition, its impact has been overwhelmingly tremendous. Any wonder that many are attracted serve as volunteers, going by the impact of ATP on their lives and that of their friends.

Cross session of doctors at ATP outreach in Ijegun

Expectedly, ATP has had its fair share of hurdles and challenges, which bothers on time demand, finance and pressure from mothers. “Initially I was the only one doing all the work and it was quite time consuming. There are times I am online at 3am. I am already busy as a wife, mom, Paediatrician, worker in my church and then add ATP to the mix, it was quite overwhelming. In fact, I have seriously considered shutting down Ask The Paediatrician, however, my friends and colleagues who love and appreciate what I was doing through ATP will not let me! Eventually Facebook introduced the concept of Moderators and that brought great relief as non-medical moderators can help address redundant questions mothers ask (that I have answered countless times before) by copying and pasting my answers or that of other healthcare professionals.  That gave me a breathing space”, narrated Boyede.

“Another challenge is that it is difficult to satisfy mothers and experienced mothers. They want you to answer their questions immediately they post, not caring you are also working full time job and have family too. Then, experienced mothers who will come and post contradictory answers to your response as professional!! The spammers and porn/advert people too. Luckily Facebook introduced the "Turn Off comments" button so we are able to turn off comments immediately after answering so people don't post unsolicited answers. It was a battle but today we have maintained that enviable post as one of the most organized Facebook Group and where you are sure that the answer you get is professional, medical, evidence-based and reliable. I have had a fair share of people stealing my post and copyright infringements but all in all, we have been able to overcome most of the challenges.”

“Then, we also have constant financial hurdles to cross as our expenses are largely drawn from personal funds, with voluntary donations and support from corporate organisations, which often comes in kind.”

While commending both Federal government and especially Lagos State for the great work done in establishing more Mother and Child Health Centres in more local governments, she admits there is still a lot to do.

“Preventable or treatable infectious diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles and HIV/AIDS account for more than 70 per cent of the estimated one million under-five deaths in Nigeria. We already know how to tackle them especially through the Primary health care system if fully implemented and practised in all the communities - immunization, exclusive breastfeeding, growth monitoring, ORS, use of Long-lasting insecticide nets, health education. What we need is implementation and scale up of current strategies. 

She also charged Nigerian mothers to “Be informed, health educated, read books and join ATP”, stressing that “exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months; complementary feeding from six months while continuing to breastfeed until two years and beyond are the essentials to a child’s health and wellness.

“Ensure all children are fully immunized; space out the child births by family planning, ensure personal and environmental hygiene ....and of course to shun self-medication and seek health intervention early at appropriate health facilities,  not from chemists or quacks or so-called auxiliary nurses”, she added .

Asked what her vision is for ATP in the next ten years, Dr. Gbemisola Boyede says, “Our Vision at Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is to promote good health and well-being of children globally; especially in Nigeria and Africa in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goal 4 by promoting child health intelligence of caregivers of children through the agency of evidenced-based health education, information, training and community medical outreaches.”

“In ten years, I see ATP impacting millions of children globally. I see us having ATP app and having chapters in every state of the federation, reaching communities all over Nigeria. I see us training healthcare professionals and also mothers on how to better care for their children, culminating in reduction of our child mortality to single digit value”, she assured.