Children's nutritional condition reflects both their food consumption and health condition. These factors depend on the food available at home, salubriousness, the environment and the care the child receives. This qualitative study presents perceptions and feelings in order to understand how families live with the problem of child malnutrition. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and observations, involving 10 mothers of undernourished children in the suburbs of Fortaleza-Ceará, Brazil. The transcriptions of their discourse revealed the theme categories unemployment and food insecurity. The synthesis of the categories under analysis evidenced that the hunger problem is characteristic by the family's insecurity. Thus, they search for support options, such as health centers, relatives, church and community. There is a need to prioritize preventive work, through public health policies, aimed at measures related to the real world of health promotion.
child nutrition disorders; family; nursing