Estado nutricional e práticas de aleitamento materno de pré-escolares

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity has been increasing epidemically, bringing various complications in childhood and adult life. The WHO and Brazilian Ministry of Health recommend exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of life and complementary breastfeeding for at least 2 years or more, as a preventive measure for childhood obesity. Objective: Describe the status of preschool children and verify the association between nutritional status and pregnancy and birth conditions, breastfeeding practices, current diet quality and current maternal nutritional status. Methodology: Cross-section study, with a sample of children aged 3 to 6 years, of both sexes, enrolled in public schools from a municipality southern Minas Gerais-BR. A questionnaire addressing variables related to breastfeeding, maternal data and children’s food consumption was applied. As an outcome, the Body Mass Index zscore for age was evaluated, characterizing the presence of excess weight. For the assessment of food quality, the individual frequency values were added and distributed in tertiles, resulting in two categories of food quality. The established significance level will be p<0.05. Results: Sample consisting of 206 children, with a mean age of 65±9,81 months and 25.25% were overweight. The main mode of delivery was cesarean section (65.68%). The rate of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months was 40.78% and breastfeeding for 2 years or more was 29,61%. Regarding food consumption, 57.8% of the children had a low-quality diet. There was a significant difference with maternal excess weight (p=0,002), greater maternal age (p=0,032) and poor diet quality (p=0,044). Conclusion: The present study found a low prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age and breastfeeding up to 24 months and a significant amount of excess weight in children, and the BMI z-score for age was associated with high maternal nutritional status and poor diet quality.