Compliance with ESPGHAN position on complementary feeding in a multicultural European community. Does ethnicity matter?

In 2008, ESPGHAN published a position paper on complementary feeding providing recommendations to health care professionals. Cultural and socio-economic factors might affect the compliance to these orientations. To estimate the prevalence of inadequacies during complementary feeding (ESPGHAN, 2008) and its association with different ethnic backgrounds. Cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of caretakers of children up to 24 months of age in a single community health centre in Greater Lisbon, through a volunteer, self-applied questionnaire. From a sample of children with wide cultural diversity, 161 valid questionnaires were obtained (median child's age 9 months, median mother's age 32 years). The prevalence rate of at least one complementary feeding inadequacy was 46% (95%CI: 38.45–53.66). The commonest inadequacies were: avoiding lumpy solid foods after 10 months of age (66.7%), avoidance or delayed introduction of foods beyond 12 months (35.4%), introduction of gluten beyond 7 months (15.9%) or salt before 12 months (6.7%). For each increase of 1 month in the age of the child, the odds of inadequacies raised 36.7% (OR=1.37; 95%CI: 1.20–1.56; p