Correlation between family and infant food habits by scalogram analysis

370 randomly selected families from an urban and a rural communities located in an industrializing area of Northern Mexico were studied. The foods consumed by the family the day before the interview as well as indicators of education, occupation and economical level of the family were determined. Type and sequence of foods introduced to the infant's diet were also investigated in 199 cases. Guttman scales for the family diet and the infant diet at six months of age were found with coefficients of scalability of 0.80 and 0.78 respectively. A significant correlation between both scales was found (p ∼ less than 0.01) suggesting that the infant at six months participates in some extent in the family diet. Higher correlations were found between both scales and indicators of economic position of the family than with the educational level of both parents. It is suggested that in areas with some industrial progress, the economy becomes an important limiting factor in determining the dietary habits of the family and the infant.