Women's work and child nutrition: The food intake of 0–4 year old children in rural Nepal

The food intake of 23 children, 1 to 50 months of age, from 2 different castes co‐existing in a mountain village of Nepal, was measured by means of weighing individual portions of 672 cooked food preparations over three consecutive days in two seasons of the year. Energy intakes are examined with respect to seasonality, infant age, sex, caste and body mass, and related to time‐allocation data on breastfeeding patterns and women's work outside the home. Despite an intra‐household food allocation favouring young children, absolute intakes are low, due to the low energy content of a high‐bulk, cereal‐based diet and the low frequency of meals. Seasonality effects are significant, and up to 12% of total energy is derived from snacks shared with mothers working in the fields. Unexpectedly, children from low caste blacksmith families obtain more energy from supplementary food on a per body mass basis than children from self‐sufficient agropastoralist households. The difference in women's work‐loads according to caste highlights the constraints imposed by lifestyle upon the feeding of young children.