Industrialized food consumption by children under 2 years of age attended at a nutritionist's office at a municipal maternity hospital

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate industrialized food consumption by children under 2 years old attended at a nutritionist's office. Method: Quantitative descriptive study, conducted in a municipal maternity hospital. The sample was composed of 175 children. The instrument used for collecting data was a structured 24-hour recall questionnaire on the children's food intake. The data were processed by using the SPSS software, 17,0, and the graphs were drawn in Excel. Results: The consumption of industrialized food starts early in life, between 4 and 6 months of age, with foods such as yoghurt (25,75%) and processed soup (6,06%) and increases with age, up to 20% for industrialized coffee and soup; 76,47% for yoghurt; 32% for instant noodles and 24% for coffee, when the child is over 12 months. Conclusion: The results show the need to prioritize nutritional education actions towards this context.