Análise da alimentação complementar e importância do aleitamento materno: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Healthy eating during childhood presents benefits that reflect on the intellectual development and adequate growth of the child as well as on the prevention of pathologies. Therefore, providing the child with adequate food, in order to avoid nutritional changes and health problems, is of fundamental importance. Eating practices in the first year of life are premature nutritional experiences that influence the construction and formation of the child's eating habits. In this sense, breastfeeding represents the first healthy eating habit of human life. Early introduction of complementary foods often increases the child's vulnerability to diarrhea, infection and malnutrition. In view of the above, this study aims to identify in the literature the importance of breastfeeding and the introduction of complementary foods at the correct age for adequate growth and development of the child; as well as describe about the importance of the nutritionist and how it can contribute positively to the proper food introduction. It is a study of the type integrative literature review, which is a method that provides the synthesis of knowledge and the incorporation of the applicability of results of significant studies in practice. It presents as criteria of inclusion scientific articles published between 2010 and 2017, in Portuguese language as an instrument of information collection. The databases consulted were Scielo, VHL (Virtual Health Library), Google Academic, books and reliable health web sites. We found 24 studies, in which the subject under analysis related to these. The studies analyzed showed the importance of complementary feeding in a correct way, initiated in the correct time, attending the energetic needs of the babies, also highlighting the risks of early and late initiation, besides the importance of breastfeeding. It is concluded that the losses of artificial feeding and the early and / or inadequate introduction of complementary foods should be more widely discussed and disseminated and parents and / or guardians need to be advised about the physiological and nutritional principles that guide the child's diet.