Dietary intake of Aboriginal Australian children aged 6–36 months in a remote community: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Scarce literature comprehensively captures the transition to solid foods for children in remote Aboriginal Australian communities, a population expected to be especially vulnerable to nutritional inadequacy for largely socio-economic reasons. This study describes the dietary intake of children aged 6-36 months in a remote Aboriginal community during the years of solids introduction and establishment. Specifically, we aimed to explore milk feeding practices, major sources of nutrition and traditional food consumption, dietary patterns and nutrient and food group intakes, and compare these to national and international recommendations. Methods: This dietary assessment was conducted as part of an observational, cross-sectional Child Health and Nutrition study. Three 24-h dietary recalls were completed with the parent/care-giver of each participant over 2-4 weeks, capturing a pay-week, non-pay-week and weekend day from October 2017-February 2018. Additional information collected included sociodemographic data, food security status, usual cooking practices, and attendance at playgroup. Results: Diet histories for 40 children were included in the analysis (~40% of the population). Breast feeding rates were high (85%), with mothers exclusively feeding on demand. Very few participants met recommended intakes for wholegrains (n = 4, 10%), vegetables (n = 7, 18%), dairy (n = 5, 18%) and fruit (n = 13, 33%), while more children met the guidelines for meat (n = 19, 48%) and discretionary food intake (n = 28, 70%). Traditional foods were always nutritionally dense and consumed frequently (n = 22, 55% of children). Statistically significant pay-cycle differences in intakes of all macro-, and numerous micro-nutrients were observed. Conclusions: Many positive early feeding practices are currently enacted in remote Aboriginal communities including responsive and long duration breastfeeding, and nutrient-dense traditional food consumption from earliest solids introduction. However, the non-pay-week/pay-week cycle is impacting the quality and quantity of children's diets at a time of rapid growth and development.

The iron content of healthy diets for one day for breastfed babies and young children

“…Additionally, the babies of mothers who lived on these nutrient‐dense traditional foods, probably had sufficient iron stores at birth to last until around age 8 months when capacity for solid food is greater 31 . Such foods continue to be valued and consumed, in remote settings as the above study highlighted 26,27,51,52 …”

“…It is concerning if current recommendations for healthy diets do not meet iron requirements at age 6 to 23 months, a time of rapid growth and development. This is especially concerning in remote Australia where food insecurity means that families can struggle to consistently provide adequate food for their children 26,27 …”

“…In the remote communities of northern Australia, breastfeeding is the usual mode of infant feeding and is commonly continued into the second year of life 26,27 . Breastfeeding provides many advantages for health and neurodevelopment in early life, and has long‐term benefits 28 .…”

Climate, landscape diversity, and food sovereignty in arid Australia: The firestick farming hypothesis

“…Increased participation in traditional foraging activities has been linked to improved health outcomes, particularly a lower prevalence of diabetes, lower HDL cholesterol levels, blood pressure, BMI (Burgess et al, 2009; Burgess, Johnston, Bowman, & Whitehead, 2005; McDermott, O'Dea, Rowley, Knight, & Burgess, 1998; O'Dea, 1988; O'Dea, Spargo, & Nestel, 1982; Rowley et al, 2008). Children consume fewer sugar‐sweetened drinks and more traditional foods, especially at critical developmental periods such as the weaning transition (Tonkin et al, 2020). However, physical health is not the only outcome of increased access to traditional foods.…”

Dietary intake of Indigenous Australian infants and young children in the Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort

“…More than half met the recommended intake of fruits, but the majority also reported consuming nearly 50% more than the recommended limit for discretionary foods 12 . Although there is no national data on the nutritional intake of Indigenous infants under 2 years of age, Indigenous infants and young children aged 6 to 36 months in remote communities were reported to not be meeting the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) recommendations 18,19 . Nutritional intakes from first foods were also suboptimal, with a high consumption of discretionary foods and low fruit and vegetable intake 18,19 .…”