Social and cultural factors are very important in the life of human beings because the health situation of people depends on them, especially when child malnutrition is registered as a major problem of public health and child welfare, the consequences are fatal in the medium and long term. The objective of the investigation was: To identify the social and cultural factors that condition chronic malnutrition in children from 3 to 5 years of age attached to the micro health network Chupaca; basic research type, descriptive level, transactional design, the population was 700 mothers with children in a state of chronic malnutrition, the sample was 70 mothers, the instrument was the questionnaire.The malnutrition of children is due to the practice of cultural food patterns because they are not fed regularly with nutritious diet and are influenced by social conditions and resources, as well as eating habits and mistaken beliefs reinforcing these behaviors.