Les pratiques de diversification sont différentes en fonction des cultures et des régions et évoluent au fil du temps. Des travaux évaluant la relation avec l’état nutritionnel des enfants ont été réalisés en se servant de scores cotant les bonnes pratiques de diversification telles que l’allaitement maternel, la diversité des repas, la fréquence des repas. L’objectif de ce travail était de décrire les pratiques nutritionnelles des enfants de Yaoundé et d’établir une corrélation avec leur état nutritionnel.

Il s’est agi d’une enquête transversale, conduite dans le service de vaccination du centre mère-enfant de la Fondation Chantal-Biya en janvier 2011. Un questionnaire portant sur le mode d’alimentation à la naissance, le démarrage de la diversification et les repas des trois jours précédant l’enquête, a été adressé à 197 couples mère-enfant enrôlés dans l’étude. Les enfants ont été pesés puis mesurés.

L’allaitement maternel apparaissait comme principal mode d’alimentation à la naissance et les trois quarts des enfants avaient commencé la diversification entre 4 et 6 mois. La moitié des enfants de 6 à 8 mois ne recevait aucun aliment d’origine animale en dehors du lait maternel, ni fruits et légumes. En codifiant ces éléments selon un score de diversification alimentaire, près de 50 % avaient un faible score. Une association positive a été trouvée entre le score de diversification alimentaire et l’état nutritionnel des enfants.

Shifting from breastfeeding to solid food is known as the complementary feeding period. When complementary feeding is inadequate, malnutrition results in most cases. These practices differ depending on cultural and religious backgrounds as well as geographical location. Ruel and Menon studied the relationship between feeding practices during diversification and nutritional status of children at 6 and 36 months, using a score called the Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI). This ICFI scored feeding practices such as breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, food diversity, and meal frequency, which has never been studied in Cameroon.

The aim of this study was to describe actual feeding practices in children in our context as well as to investigate their relationship with children's nutritional status.

We carried out a cross-sectional study throughout the month of January 2011 at the Chantal-Biya Foundation. Mothers completed a questionnaire on how their infants were fed at birth, the initiation of complementary food, and feeding practices for the 3 days before the survey. The children's anthropometric parameters were noted. All mothers coming for vaccination or vitamin A supplementation for their children aged between 6 and 24 months were enrolled in the study.

We enrolled 197 mothers and their infants. Breastfeeding was the main feeding method at birth, but was exclusive until 6 months for only 15 % of the infants. Three-quarter of nursing mothers started adding complementary food at age 4–6 months, using pap. Half of the children did not receive animal products, fruits, or vegetables. When applying the ICFI to these practices, it appeared that the various diversification practices scored less than 8 for 50% of the population. A positive association was noted between the ICFI and nutritional status, as expressed by height-of-age Z-score (HAZ) and the weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ).

We concluded that the codified feeding practices with respect to Ruel and Menon's ICFI are associated with the nutritional status of children between 6 and 24 months in Yaounde, Cameroon.