[Effects of stimulation available at home and of mother-child interaction on the presence and duration of diarrhea in young infants].

The relationship between two key factors involved in infant care and the frequency and duration of diarrhea, was search for in a cohort of rural infants followed-up from birth onwards. The specific questions asked were if the profile of mother-infant interaction, and the total score on home stimulation available to the infant were associated with the presence or absence of diarrhea, and with its total duration, expressed as the percentage of days with diarrhea over the number of days of age, in each semester of the first year of life of the infants. Frequency an duration of diarrhea, mother-infant interaction, and scores on home stimulation available to the infant showed no difference between baby-boys and baby-girls. The behavior of mothers of infants with diarrhea was not significantly different than the behavior exhibited by mothers of infants without diarrhea; even in the scales related to "quantity of physical contact with the infant", "type of physical contact with the infant", "response to infant's needs", and "sensitivity toward the infant". Similarly, neither the quality nor quantity of home stimulation showed association with the presence of diarrhea. Finally, none of the two microenvironmental attributes influenced the duration of diarrhea in either semester of the life of the infant. Although diarrhea is one of the most frequent antecedents of severe clinical malnutrition and in the latter both mother-infant interaction and home stimulation play a prominent role in the evolution from second degree to third clinical degree malnutrition, it seems important than those factors have a minimal influence in relation to diarrhea during the first year of life.