Objective:

To study the magnitude, distribution and trends of undernutrition and overweight in Mexican children under five years between 1988 and 2016.

Materials and methods:

Underweight, wasting, stunting and overweight prevalences were calculated, at national, regional and rural/urban locality levels in children under five years from the 1988, 1999, 2006, 2012 and 2016 national probabilistic surveys.

Results:

Currently 3.9% suffer underweight, 1.9% wasting and 10% stunting. There was an decrease in stunting from 1988 to 2016 (26.9 vs 10.0%), in rural (43.1 vs 12.6%) and urban (22.5 vs 9.1%) localities and in South (38.6 vs 13.4%), Center (29.2 vs 8.4%) and Mexico City (13.6 vs 4.7%). In the North region the decrease was smaller (13.3 vs 11.4%). Overweight diminished from 9.7% to 5.8, mainly between 2012-2016.

Conclusions:

Stunting has continued its decline in Mexico, but high prevalences persist in some vulnerable groups. Overweight had an unexpected decline between 2012-2016.