Perspectives of health professionals in the area of vegetarian food diversification in the latent: a scoping review

Abstract

Introduction

Food is a strong determinant in health, an act of expression of affection and an important aspect of individual and social behavior (DGS, 2015).  Along with a wide range of updates related to food diversification in the latent, there is a paradigmatic and cultural change, integrating new food trends into family diets. On the other hand, there is evidence of the health benefits of consuming foods of plant origin (Baroni et al, 2018) and for the sustainability of the planet (APN, 2017). In primary health care there are several situations of consultations, in which parents assume themselves practitioners of a vegetarian diet, which they intend to reproduce in the food diversification of their children, being possible this adaptation, provided that they have knowledge of the guiding nutritional principles, as well as training for the purchase and confection of food (ESPGAN, 2017; APN, 2018).

Objective

Due to the need identified in clinical practice, this study aimed to systematize the perspectives of health professionals in the vegetarian food diversification of the latent, in order to sustain measures to improve the quality of care.

Methods

According to the methodological principles of a "Scoping Review", the following question was defined: "What are the perspectives of Health Professionals regarding the introduction of new food trends in the latent?". The EBSCO and PUBMED platforms were used, based on the PRISMA protocol, and the terms as descriptors MesH Browser were measured and validated, from which 13 articles were extracted.

Results and Discussion

With this review, it was possible to map in two groups of articles, one related to dietary guidelines and the other referring to the importance of interventions, the most current scientific evidence and identify parallels between the studies found, norms of the reference entities and clinical practice, promoters of a more supported nursing intervention.

Conclusions

The results obtained are relevant to better train the families, by specialized professionals and holders of adequate training. It is important to produce more knowledge, with emphasis on adequate planning and monitoring of the diet in the latent, in order to mitigate the risks of nutritional deficiencies, with adequate and individualized supplementation, which may compromise the development of the child.