Public children daycare center: a scenario to detect childhood obesity

Abstract

This is a transversal study with the purpose to detect, in the ambit of a daycare center, precocious cases of overweight and childhood obesity. Ninety children were evaluated in a daycare center in Fortaleza city. The findings revealed the following nutritional condition regarding to the weight: 57.7% (eutrophic), 14.4% (overweight), 13.3% (obese), 11.1% (low weight) and 3.3% (underfed). The scenario in which the obese or overweight children were inserted was the following: 60% had presented a pattern of ineffective breast-feeding; 60% lived in families with a monthly income of less of one minimum wage. In the context of the children with excess of weight, the study found 76% of the mothers had an incorrect knowledge concerning the nutritional state of their children. Nursing care in this context is very important in the detection and intervention on the childhood obesity, specially, in the family and nutrition context of the health care.