Nutritional status and its relationship with eating habits in children from 1 to 3 years of age who attend the child development center.

Abstract

Introduction: Food and nutrition in children are essential for brain development until adulthood; lack of a sufficiently nutrient-rich diet would result in stunting, wasting, overweight or obesity. Not having an adequate diet can expose them to one or more forms of malnutrition. Objectives: Determine nutritional status and its relationship with eating habits in children from 1 to 3 years old, who attend the child development center. Materials and methods: A non-experimental, cross-sectional and descriptive quantitative study, whose observation guide validated by experts was applied through a simple random non-probabilistic sample to 36 medical records found in the database and the discharge and admission matrix. child development center Children under 4 years of age were studied during October 2017. Sociodemographic variables of the child and the head of the family were measured; the factors that can influence the nutritional status and the anthropometric characteristics of the child. Results: It was observed that the nutritional status related to their eating habits that was assessed in October 2021, all the children their BMI/AGE are normal weight; WEIGHT/AGE, only 2 children are underweight and LENGTH HEIGHT/AGE, 3 children are severely undersized. The determining factors that influence malnutrition in children were: households with heads of families with a low academic level and income below the minimum wage. Conclusion: Most families have low incomes and a low level of education; malnutrition frequency lower than other studies; tendency to be overweight; short stature and the determining factors found that influence nutritional status are low income and low educational level of heads of families.