Feeding difficulties in early childhood

Objective: The objective was to estimate the prevalence of and identify factors associated with feeding difficulties in children aged between six and 36 months.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of children followed up by primary health care providers. A semistructured questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic, demographic and nutritional data. The Brazilian Infant Feeding Scale (EBAI) was used to assess feeding difficulties, and food consumption was measured using the Food Intake Markers of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System. The associations between socioeconomic, demographic and nutritional characteristics and feeding difficulties were tested. A multiple logistic model was fitted to control for confounding variables.
Results: A total of 229 children were evaluated. The prevalence of feeding difficulties was 5.2% (95% CI: 2.9-9.0). Children with feeding difficulties presented higher mean scores for each item of the scale than did those without feeding difficulties. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of the median score on most EBAI questions (p<0.05). Being male [OR: 8.68; p=0.021] and receiving government assistance [OR 6.24; p=0.031] were associated with feeding difficulties.