In the context of the project “Clinical and social evaluation of medical practices in the treatment of infectious diseases in pediatrics for children of vulnerable population” carried out in 2013 by a multidisciplinary team at the National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP) in Rome, a study in medical anthropology on the incorporation of illnesses that mothers feel they transmit to their children through breastfeeding was conducted. The results of the anthropological study, that targeted 34 children and adolescents from the age of 3 to the age of 17, all immigrants from Latin America residing in Italy, show that some forms of suffering in minors are described by women as being connected to factors such as susto (“fright”), coraje, muina, enojo (“anger”) and mal de ojo (“evil eye”), and are in relation to a specific cultural frame. It is clear that barriers that prevent the access to the healthcare system must be removed, barriers that are accentuated by linguistic and cultural incomprehension, through adequate multidisciplinary healthcare settings such as the one we are presenting, composed of a medical doctor, an anthropologist and a cultural mediator. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

emigrants and immigrants Children Health Latin america breastfeeding

cultural anthropology South and Central America Latin America human epidemiology ethnology Breast Feeding Humans migrant psychology Adolescent Empathy male Emigrants and Immigrants preschool child female Child, Preschool Mothers Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice mother Italy attitude to health Culture Child