Objective Analyse the effect of amaranth flour on the nutritional recovery in two groups of children from 2 to 4 years with malnutrition grade I, one with control over their consumption and the other with a regular consumption over a period of three months.

Material and methods Quantitative, quasi-experimental longitudinal prospective study. We followed up to 83 children aged between two and four years of age with malnutrition grade I, three health centres in the Health District I San Luis Potosi.

Results 46 children joined the experimental group and 37 in the control group in the first 27 female and 19 male, average age of this group was 3 years and 4 months old. The control group was composed of 21 females and 14 males with a mean age was 3 years 1 month old. We followed up the groups over three months. The final comparison (sixth evaluation) by paired analysis between groups was observed in the experimental suffered significant increases compared to control variables such as weight, subscapular skinfold and Centripetal index.

In this study was demonstrated that parameters such as PT, PSE, PB, AM and AG can be used as evaluation measures sensitive to nutritional changes in short time.