Nutritional counseling for children under two years of age: opportunities and obstacles as strategic challenges

This article sought to conduct a critical analysis of the state of the art of the scientific production in counseling practices in nutrition for infants under two years of age, discussing the opportunities and obstacles in terms of strategic challenges for implementing healthy nutrition practices. It is a bibliographic study, with the core interest being counseling on infant nutrition. The majority (58.1 %) of the articles analyzed was published between 2008 and 2011. The educative actions of counseling on infant feeding were directed at health professionals and caregivers to children under two years of age. As opportunities in the practice of nutritional counseling the following stand out: an improvement in the performance of health professionals, the adoption of healthy eating practices by caregivers, and an improvement in the nutritional status of the children. As obstacles, the following stand out: a lack of training of caregivers and professionals regarding complementary healthy feeding and difficulties regarding the practice of counseling by a health care professional. This evidence reaffirms the importance of incorporating counseling guidance on infant feeding, as permanent practices in policies for child health care.