Introduction: The importance of the influence of diet in the first few years of life on child growth and development and its relationship with the prevention of chronic diseases in childhood and adulthood has recently been stressed. The aim of the present study was to determine the presence or absence of inappropriate feeding practices, defined as non-compliance with dietary recommendations, in children aged less than 2 years old through a survey.
Subjects and methods: The parents of 462 children were administered a 14-item questionnaire on compliance with dietary recommendations to define nutritional risk. Depending on the parents' country of birth, children were classified as autochthonous, gypsy, or non-autochthonous.
Results: In absolute results, high percentages of non-compliance with a substantial number of recommendations were found in all children and in each of the three groups, with the consequent danger of nutritional risk.
Conclusions: In children in our environment, there are numerous inadequate feeding practices that constitute nutritional risk factors and require preventive and educational interventions to improve the future health of these children when they reach adulthood. In children from ethnic groups, no particularly severe inadequate feeding practices related to origin were found. The gypsy ethnic group requires additional nutritional health education interventions. Health workers should improve the information provided on nutritional recommendations and feeding practices to avoid misunderstanding, as in the case of gluten.