Introduction:

Food diversity can be used to measure the quality of the feeding habits. It has a positive association with diet quality and constitutes an important factor to reach the nutritional requirements.

Objectives:

Assess the variability in feeding patterns of pre-schoolers living in Asunción, from families with high socioeconomic status and the relation with their nutritional status.

Methodology:

Observational, transversal in time, qualitative study. The researchers evaluated children from 2-6 years of age, from families with high socioeconomic status living in Asunción, from September to October of 2014, using antromopetric measures and two questionnaires applied in direct interview format: the first one with demographic data and the second one with a list of locally available food. The nutritional status and its relation with food diversity were assessed, measuring frequency. World’s Health Organization’s Software Anthro 3.2 was used for anthropometric evaluation.

Results:

In total, 67 children were included in the study, mainly female. 89,5% of the patient’s mother had concluded tertiary education. 63% of patients were well-nourished and 31,5% had excess weight (overweight and obese). 19% were in risk of stumpting and 1,5% were in the range of stumpting. A total of 172 food varieties were found, distributed in 9 groups, the mean quantity of food varieties consumed by children was of 69,19 (CI: 95%, 63,79-74,59), ranging from 28 to 126 food varieties. Significant differences were not found in Body Mass Index and food diversity; but a statistically significant relation was found between food diversity and height.

Conclusion:

Low variability in feeding patterns was found in children with high socioeconomic status. There was a significant relation between food diversity and the child’s height.

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