Vulnerability of Children of Street Trading Nursing Mothers to Diseases in Urban Nigeria: Strategies for Mitigation

Background The preponderance of women in unstructured street trading activities in Nigeria might not be a challenge; however, the wearing of babies at the back in the conduct of the business could expose the children to infections and accident. . Objective The study examined the implications of the activities of street trading nursing mothers on the health of their accompanied children. Research Design Data was collected through structured face-to-face interviews intermediated by snowballing techniques among 228 mothers with children between ages 0 and 12 months who trade on the streets. These techniques were adopted due to lack of sampling frame on the target population. One Local Government Area out of 20 in Ogun state was chosen purposively due to proximity and cost. Data analyses involved univariate and multivariate methods. Results The results show that over 72% of women interviewed wrapped their babies at their back with their wares upon their heads while trading on the streets. It revealed that children wrapped at their mothers’ back while trading on the street are 77% more likely to be exposed to sicknesses/diseases than their counterparts who are not wrapped at the back while trading on the road (OR = 1.778, p=0.042). Conclusion The result obtained has a lot of policy implications considering the ongoing efforts to reduce infant morbidity. Government intervention in establishing free crèches, children sick-bay within the central business districts and campaign against such practice could safeguard the children from avoidable exposure to diseases