A Consultant Paediatric Haematologist and Oncologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Prof. Edamisan Temiye, has warned parents against using starvation as a form of punishment for children, noting that it can lead to depression and aggression.
He noted that it is wrong for parents to deprive their children of food to serve as a form of punishment for an offence.
The child health expert also cautioned parents to stop linking rewards or punishments to food.
According to him, using harsh and violent measures to punish children would make them depressed and exhibit violent behaviour.
Disclosing this during an exclusive interview with PUNCH Healthwise, Temiye insisted that parents must desist from the act.
He said, “It is unacceptable for parents to starve their children as a form of punishment. It is a cruel thing to do.
“From childhood, you must allow a child to expressive, but correct them with love when they are wrong. There are many ways of correcting them without having to starve them.
“You can correct your child without inflicting injury on him or her physically and psychologically. That is what we should learn.
“When we threaten them not to talk, they become timid, and end up as a timid adults. At the end of the day, society will not benefit from it.
“Meting out harsh treatment on a child can affect their psychological development and the ability to contribute to the growth of the society.”
The don also said parents have to stop slapping their children, warning that it is dangerous and could lead to eye injury.
He noted that such measures adversely impact a child’s entire life as the effects in most cases, result in negative outcomes.
“Harshly treating a child increases the rate of aggression in society. Children treated in a harsh and unfriendly manner are likely to repeat that on their children.
“Children who are from friendly and loving families are usually brighter and they express themselves more. They contribute more positively to society than those from places where children are shouted at and beaten,” the paediatrician said.
Meanwhile, a 2021 review of studies conducted by an international group of scientists and published in peer-reviewed The Lancet, titled “Physical punishment and child outcomes: a narrative review of prospective studies” indicated that physical punishment of children was not effective in preventing child behaviour problems.
The review noted that physical punishment does not improve a child’s behaviour, but was rather harmful.
The researchers looked at 69 studies, most of which were from the United States and revealed that instead of promoting positive outcomes, physical punishment increases behavioural problems and other poor outcomes over time.
The researchers affirmed that 63 per cent of children between the ages of two and four worldwide – approximately 250 million children – were regularly subjected to physical punishment by caregivers.
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