Evaluación del estado nutricional en niños de 0 a 5 años de la ¨Casa Hogar Guayaquil¨, de octubre 2023 a enero 2024.

Abstract

Chronic childhood malnutrition (CIM) is a condition that until 2018 affected 23% of boys and girls under 5 years of age in Ecuador. This incidence represents a serious public health problem, to the extent that it affects the health and development of babies, the well-being of their families and the country's economy itself. The objective of this research is to determine the nutritional status of children from 0 to 5 years of age in the “Casa Hogar Guayaquil”; The study is observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, and quantitative in approach. In the results we found, on the anthropometric evaluation referring to the Height/Age indicator that 67% of boys/girls have a severe growth delay and 13% have a mild growth delay. Likewise, according to the Gómez/Waterlow Height/Age index (stunting), 70% of boys and girls present some type of calorie deficit, being more noticeable in the age range of 1 to 3 years. In the Gómez/Waterlow Weight/Age indicator (wasting), the degree of malnutrition was determined, and its result reflected that 49% of boys/girls present mild and moderate malnutrition, mainly between the age ranges of 3 to 5 years. The eating habits of the study sample were identified using the 24-hour reminder. In the age group from 0 to 2 years, they have an adequate caloric intake for their age, however, boys/girls over 2 years old and up to 5 years of age have a high caloric deficit and the correct consumption according to the WHO should be approximately 1050 - 1500 kcal/day, reflecting the reason why there is a high percentage of stunted growth in the infants at the Casa Hogar Guayaquil.