This paper reports the results of a cross-sectional study on the growth of Fulani
children, aged 6 months–15 years, living in Kwara, Ogun and Oyo States, South
western Nigeria. This population of Fulani are fully settled pastoralists whose economy
and culture are now centred on cattle and farming. There is a dearth of information on
the prevalence of malnutrition in this group. We measured the heights and weights of 164
girls and 167 boys and determined their anthropometric indices, height-for-age (HA),
weight-for-height (WH), and weight-for-age (WA) Z-scores. The prevalence of stunting
(HAZ < -2), wasting (WHZ < -2) and underweight (WAZ < -2) was 38.7%, 13.6%, and
38.7%, respectively, when compared to the reference NCHS WHO standard used for
defi ning stunting, wasting and underweight. Boys were more malnourished than girls,
but this was not statistically signifi cant (stunting: ÷2=0.36; df=1; p=0.54); (underweight:
÷2=1.10; df=1; p=0.29); and (wasting: ÷2=0.00; df=1; p=0.98) The mean of Z-scores of
height-for-age, weight-for-age and weight-for-height in the study population were -1.502,
-1.634 and -0.931, respectively. The SD was 1.52, 1.09 and 1.20, respectively. Using
WHO Malnutrition Classifi cation systems, 38.7% of the children were found to be malnourished.
It was concluded that malnutrition among children in this population could be
linked to changing food habits and lifestyle from nomadic to sedentary livingx