Food consumption of infants: Is there a relationship with maternal nutritional status?

Abstract

Introduction: As the primary caregiver of her child, the mother figure has a strong influence on the child’s health, nutritional status, and formation of eating habits. Objective: To determine the nutritional status of mothers and its association with children’s food consumption. Objective: To determine the nutritional status of mothers and its association with children’s food consumption. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 163 mother-child pairs at <24 months of age attended in Family Health Units. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic and anthropometric variables of mothers and infants. The nutritional status of the infants was determined using the body mass index by age; the diagnosis of the nutritional status of the mothers was determined by body mass index. Infant feeding practice was evaluated using the Food Intake Markers proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Results: 51.53% of the mothers were overweight, and 30.06% of the children were overweight, according to BMI/age. In terms of children’s food consumption, there was a marked presence of ultra-processed foods. Inadequate maternal nutritional status was associated with consuming packaged snacks the day before the survey (p = 0.002). Conclusion: The maternal profile significantly influences infant food consumption; therefore, it is necessary to implement health education activities to advise families and reinforce the importance of adequately introducing complementary foods.