Breastfeeding, complementary feeding, physical activity, screen use, and hours of sleep in children under 2 years during lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile

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2227-9067
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Abstract
: Infants and children are a risk group in terms of developing healthy habits, an important aspect if we consider that many of them were born during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to evaluate compliance with lifestyle recommendations proposed at the national and international levels in children aged 0 to 23 months during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. A cross-sectional study was conducted, and 211 online questionnaires were completed with sociodemographic and lifestyle information of children. Our results show high compliance with the recommendations on breastfeeding intake (78.3% and 69.5% in 0–5-month-old and 6–23-month-old children, respectively); age of starting complementary feeding (87.4%); non-consumption of salt and sugar (80.1%), non-caloric sweeteners (90.7%), and sweet and salty snacks (68.9%); and hours of physical activity (66.8%) and sleep (65.4%). However, we observed low compliance with the recommendations on the age of introduction of dinner (58.0%), eggs (23.0%), legumes (39.2%), and fish (35.1%); low consumption of legumes (43.4%) and fish (20.5%); and low compliance with the recommendations on screen use during meals (59.2%) and daily screen hours (41.2%). In conclusion, feeding behavior, physical activity, use of screens, and hours of sleep in children were altered by confinement during the pandemic, harming the development of healthy lifestyles.
Description
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This research did not receive external funding. The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Universidad Finis Terrae Bioethics Committee (protocol code: #30-11-2021; date of approval: 9 August 2021).
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Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Chile (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 CL)