Breastfeeding and infant feeding among indigenous people of the Western Region of the state of São Paulo: a movement between tradition and interculturality

Brazilian indigenous people suffers a rapid and complex process of changes in many aspects of your life, even regarding breastfeeding practices, nutrition and the effects on infant nutritional status resulting from contact with non-indigenous people. Therefore, it was aimed to investigate the practice of breastfeeding, feeding and nutritional status of indigenous children younger than five years old in a village located in the western region of the State of São Paulo. Was conducted an ethnographic study according to the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Clifford Geertz, with statistical association to describe the nutritional status of 24 children who met the study criteria and 31 women, mothers and families of the children in the study, who assisted in nutritional care of children. Objective data on child nutritional status were collected from medical records by anthropometric measures and structured interviews with mothers; qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. The analysis of the narratives obtained resulted in a set of anthropological categories grouped into two themes: Breastfeeding: traditions and indigenous beliefs e Indigenous meals: the interculturality reflection, from which emerged the central theme: Infant feeding, movement between tradition and interculturality. Infant feeding, considering breastfeeding and children provision of food, in this study, appears in a movement between tradition and interculturality, in which exclusive breastfeeding does not exist, but there is maintenance of maternal food for children up to five years old. Cows milk in natura is considered what sustains, but breastfeeding is a custom maintained by women to also nurture the emotional dimension of the child. Teas are offered routinely to cure diseases.The Industrialized milk and the milk additives are inserted in specific situations in the community by non-indigenous people. Solid food are introduced to children aged between four and six months, chosen according to their availability in the domestic cultivation and possibility of acquisition. The main food consumed is the bean soup mixed with rice or mashed baked potato. Traditions mingle with new habits resulting from contact with non-indigenous culture. This is already reflected in the nutritional status of children with the emergence of cases of childhood overweight.