Mothers' groups enrich diet and culture through promoting traditional Quichua foods.

Indigenous Peoples in Latin America bear a disproportionate burden of undernutrition, yet traditional foods, including wild leafy greens, can contribute nutritional value to diets. As part of a community nutrition intervention using local foods in highland Tungurahua, Ecuador, mothers' groups promoted the consumption of wild leafy greens through community cooking clubs and recipe competitions at local fairs. The objective was to assess the social, cultural, and nutritional potential of a mothers' club intervention that promoted 2 indigenous greens (stinging nettle/Urtica dioica L.

A Community-Based Positive Deviance/Hearth Infant and Young Child Nutrition Intervention in Ecuador Improved Diet and Reduced Underweight.

Objective: Underweight and stunting are serious problems in Ecuador that require interventions in the first 2 years of life. The researchers assessed the effectiveness of a Positive Deviance (PD)/Hearth community-based intervention using local foods to improve infant and young children's nutrition.

Design: A quasi-experimental nonrandomized study was conducted between March and October, 2009.

Infant and young child feeding practices and stunting in two highland provinces in Ecuador.

The first two years of life are critical for growth and development. Little is known about infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in the Ecuadorian highlands and how they contribute to stunting. With the objective of understanding nutritional status and the influencing factors to design an intervention, we assessed the nutritional status of 293 infants and children between 0 and 24 months of age, living in 14 communities in the provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo using a cross-sectional study design.

Adjustments for weighing clothed babies at high altitude or in cold climates.

Public health nutritionists rely on anthropometry for nutritional assessment, program planning, and evaluation. Children are usually heavily clothed at high altitudes and in cold climates. Failing to adjust for clothing weight could underestimate malnutrition prevalence.