This thesis addresses how mothers and caregivers take care of sick children in rural north central Nigeria combining secondary analysis of the Nigerian Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) and ethnographic fieldwork in a village in a rural area. Theoretically, the thesis draws on concepts from epidemiology and anthropology in order to analyze and extend understanding of plural health seeking behaviour in a socially disadvantaged setting Methods: Rapid ethnographic assessment of mothers and caregivers in rural village in north central Nigeria was carried out using focus group discussions, household interviews and non participant observation over eight months. Findings: The NDHS analysis showed a social gradient generated by different level exposure to socially patterned risk and protective factors overtime in relation to illness, nutrition and living conditions. These mothers and caregivers were constrained by materialistic and neo materialistic factors shaping their circumstances within their daily lives and within Nigerian society – an example of structural violence. They express human agency in their decisions concerning caring for their children in a way that is shaped by cultural behavioural understandings of social and medical diagnostics of health and illness which is manifested in plural health seeking behaviour.