We obtained maternal and gestational clearly data (prepregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, and mother’s smoking during pregnancy) and at birth (birth weight) evaluated as possible factors associated with nutritional status and body composition at later ages. The maternal prepregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain were evaluated according to reference of the medicine institute [31]. The birth weight was evaluated in three growing categories, with the first category representing children born with insufficient weight [32]. With respect to infant feeding, data were obtained from medical records on the practice of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), consumption of cow’s milk, infant formula, and age of introduction of solid foods in infant feeding.

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) was evaluated as the type of practice in which the infant receives only breast milk, straight from the breast or expressed, or breast milk from another source, no other liquids or solids, except for drops or syrups containing vitamins, oral rehydration salts, mineral supplements or drugs [18].Children aged between 4 and 7 years were evaluated for weight, height, waist circumference, and percent body fat (total body and regional android representing the abdominal fat). Weight was measured on a digital electronic scale, with a maximum capacity of 150kg and sensitivity of 50g. Height was measured using a vertical stadiometer attached to the wall, with a length of 2 meters, divided into centimeters and subdivided into millimeters. We adopted the techniques proposed by Jelliffe [33].

The nutritional status of the children was evaluated according to sex and age, using the anthropometric indices of weight/age (W/A), height/age (H/A), and Body Mass Index/age (BMI/A), classified according to anthropometric references of the World Health Organization (WHO) [34, 35]. For the calculations of the indices, the Software WHO Anthro Plus [36] was used and the diagnosis of the nutritional status was performed by following the recommendation in z-score of WHO [37]. For the evaluation Drug_discovery of the EBF time effect and consumption of other foods in the nutritional status, the index used was the BMI/A and the Z-score >+1 was considered as changed.The children’s body composition was assessed using the equipment DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry). The variables considered were total body fat mass in grams, total body fat percentage, fat mass in grams, in the android region in grams and fat percentage in the android region. The total body fat percentage and android region fat percentage variables were categorized using as a cutoff the 85th percentile distribution of the sample by gender and age.