Nigeria, Oct. 9 -- Every year, millions of children around the world suffer from malnutrition. But what is often less visible, yet just as devastating, are the psychological wounds that malnutrition inflicts on both children and their caregivers.

Over the years, an upward surge in children admitted for the treatment of malnutrition in nutrition programs supported by Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been an alarming trend. In the 12 inpatient therapeutic feeding centers and over 30 outpatient therapeutic feeding centers supported MSF across seven northern Nigerian states, our teams are often overwhelmed.

Malnutrition is one disease that doesn't just affect the child physically. It has psychological, emotional, a...