[Interaction of dietary intake and diarrheal disease in child growth]

There is evidence in the literature of the negative effects of diarrheal disease, and of the positive effects caused by food supplementation in postnatal growth. The present study analyzes the nature of the relationship between the effects of diarrheal disease and food supplementation on the growth of children of a rural area of Guatemala. The data analyzed were collected in a longitudinal study on food supplementation carried out by INCAP during the period comprised between 1969 and 1977. An important negative effect of diarrheal disease on growth was found on children three to 36 months of age with low dietary intake. Nevertheless, it was found that the negative effect of diarrheal disease on growth was lower in children whose dietary intake had important increments. In contrast, as compared with a study carried out in Colombia, where the supplementary feeding effect was restricted to groups with higher incidence of diarrhea, the supplementation effect on growth of Guatemalan children was found to be present at all levels of prevalence of diarrheal diseases. This article discusses the possible causes of the different results found in the Colombian study, as compared with those derived from the present study.