Author(s)

Eduard Cueto Rua¹, Ricardo Wright², Cecilia Zubiri³, Luciana Guzmán³, Claudia Losada¹, M. Inés Urrutia¹, María T. Gonzalez³, Ricardo Drut^4*, Mariela Espósito³, Norberto Recalde⁵, Jorge Fiad⁶, Ignacio Goñi¹, Natalia Belén⁶, María Cristina Arregui¹

¹Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
²Comisión de Investigación Científica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
³Pediatric Hospital “Sor María Ludovica”, La Plata, Argentina.
⁴Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
⁵Consultant in Pediatrics, Mar del Plata City, Argentina.
⁶Dolores City, Argentina.

Introduction: Humans have gone through physical changes over the last 4 million years. The mouth, however, has not changed teeth quantity or quality. Eight incisors for fruits, vegetables and tubers; four little canines for little animals; eight premolars and twelve flat molars are used for crushing these foods, especially whole grains and legumes. The teeth crushing foods are the first step in the building of faecal matter. Foods are selected mostly according to cultural guidelines than to biological needs. The patterns of consumption are induced by the publicity of industrialized or processed foods. Material and Methods: This study design was observational, analytical, correlational, transversal and prospective. One thousand children (0 - 12 years old) were questioned in order to learn about the relationship between Weekly Eating Frequency (WEF) and Faecal Matter (FM) characteristics. The FM was classified as soft, normal or hard and the outcome was expressed as Dry Faecal Residue (DFR). The WEF and Weekly Bowel Movement Frequency (WBMF) were determined and tabulated according to times per week. Environmental factors, parents’ education level and children’s birth order were examined. Results: There was a strong association between DFR, WBMF and WEF. Environment and education level did not play a key role although birth order did matter. Conclusions: Fibre-free foods (dairies, meats, flours and sweeties or sodas) increased DFR. Foods containing fibre from vegetables decreased DFR, which in turn contributed to the WBMF. Lowest DFR was observed in children under Exclusive Breastfeeding (EB). Distant last-born children had higher DFR. Comments: Daily examples support these results and it is clear that children’s FM is built by their parents. We encourage parents to follow the “mouth nature” rather than the “advertisements nature”.

Bowel Movement Frequency, Constipation, Culture, Faecal Matter, Foods

Cueto Rua, E. , Wright, R. , Zubiri, C. , Guzmán, L. , Losada, C. , Urrutia, M. , Gonzalez, M. , Drut, R. , Espósito, M. , Recalde, N. , Fiad, J. , Goñi, I. , Belén, N. and Arregui, M. (2019) The Children’s Faecal Matter Structure Is Built by Their Parents. Open Journal of Epidemiology, 9, 64-74. doi: 10.4236/ojepi.2019.91006.