Age at introduction of solid foods and feeding difficulties in childhood: findings from the Southampton Women’s Survey

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether age at introduction of solid foods was associated with feeding difficulties at 3 years of age. The present study was carried out using data from the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS). Women enrolled in the SWS who subsequently became pregnant were followed-up during pregnancy and postpartum, and the offspring have been studied through childhood. Maternal socio-demographic and anthropometric data and child anthropometric and feeding data were collected through interviews and self-administered questionnaires. When the children were 3 years of age, mothers/carers rated six potential child feeding difficulty questions on a four-point Likert scale, including one general question and five specific feeding difficulty questions. Age at introduction of solids as a predictor of feeding difficulties was examined in 2389 mother-child pairs, adjusting for child (age last breast fed, sex, gestation) and maternal characteristics (parity, pre-pregnancy BMI, age, education, employment, parenting difficulties, diet quality). The majority of mothers/carers (61 %) reported some feeding difficulties (general feeding difficulty question) at 3 years of age, specifically with their child eating enough food (61 %), eating the right food (66 %) and being choosy with food (74 %). Children who were introduced to solids ≥6 months had a lower risk of feeding difficulties (RR 0·73; 95 % CI 0·59, 0·91, P = 0·004) than children who were introduced to solids between 4 and 6 months. No other significant associations were found. There were few associations between feeding difficulties in relation to age at introduction of solid foods. However, general feeding difficulties were less common among infants introduced to solid foods ≥6 months of age.

Determinants for early introduction of complementary foods in Australian infants: findings from the HSHK birth cohort study

“…Those mothers who introduced solids at or after 17 weeks breastfed their children an average of 10 weeks longer than those who introduced solids before 17 weeks. This finding is consistent with studies from France [30], England [31], Denmark [32] and other studies in Australia [16]; all of which found that early introduction of solids was associated with a shorter duration of breastfeeding.…”

“…There was an independent association between very early introduction of solids and certain sociodemographic and biomedical factors. Younger mothers were more likely to introduce solids very early, which is also a common finding in previous studies [29][30][31]. Several studies have recognised single mothers as a potential predictor for shorter duration of breastfeeding and early introduction to solids [15,33,34].…”

Association between eating frequency and eating behaviours related to appetite from 4 to 7 years of age: Findings from the population-based birth cohort generation XXI

“…Similar to other children feeding studies (4,5,50) , we used parental report on infant feeding including eating habits and eating behaviours which might be prone to misreporting and social desirability bias. Food diaries were completed by parents or other main caregivers, who might not be with the child all day.…”

“…Children's eating behaviours were assessed subjectively by parental report; nevertheless, the CEBQ has shown good psychometric properties in this population (38) and good correspondence with objective measures (51) . The questions used to assess parental concerns regarding problematic eating behaviours were originally developed by the cohort within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ALSPAC (39) and several studies have used it to evaluated children's feeding difficulties (4,5,50,52) . Moreover, these questions have shown moderate-to-high correlations with the original subscales of the CEBQ, giving more robustness to the data regarding problematic eating behaviours (5) .…”

Introducing complementary foods in the first year of life

“…Sweet can be a fruit-based meal, salted instead a pumpkin or carrotbased meal, vegetables that are usually used in the early days. 16 A gluten-free grain flour (of millet, rice, corn) or of other plants, such as tapioca, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, is melted with fruit and vegetables puree. 17 Vegetable broth is for many cultures a starting point to prepare a meal.…”