Dietary patterns in infancy: the importance of maternal and family influences on feeding practice

Abstract

It is not known what constitutes an optimal diet in infancy. There are relatively few studies of weaning practice in the UK, and there is a need for prospective data on the effects of infant diet and nutrition on health in later life. We describe the dietary patterns, defined using principal components analysis of FFQ data, of 1434 infants aged 6 and 12 months, born between 1999 and 2003. The two most important dietary patterns identified at 6 and 12 months were very similar. The first pattern was characterised by high consumption of fruit, vegetables and home-prepared foods (‘infant guidelines’ pattern). The second pattern was characterised by high consumption of bread, savoury snacks, biscuits and chips (‘adult foods’ pattern). Dietary pattern scores were correlated at 6 and 12 months (r 0·46 ‘infant guidelines’; r 0·45 ‘adult foods’). These patterns, which reflect wide variations in weaning practice, are associated with maternal and family characteristics. A key influence on the infant diet is the quality of the maternal diet. Women who comply with dietary recommendations, and who have high intakes of fruit and vegetables, wholemeal bread and rice and pasta, are more likely to have infants who have comparable diets – with high ‘infant guidelines’ pattern scores. Conversely, women whose own diets are characterised by high intakes of chips, white bread, crisps and sweets are more likely to have infants who have high ‘adult foods’ pattern scores. The effects of these patterns on growth and development, and on long-term outcomes need to be investigated.

What do babies eat? Evaluation of a food frequency questionnaire to assess the diets of infants aged 12 months

“…The characteristics of the fifty mother-infant pairs studied were comparable with the remainder of the SWS cohort (8) (P . 0?05 for all comparisons; Table 1).…”

“…The FFQ Foods were included in the FFQ (8) following review of data from a UK survey of children aged 18 months (9) , 24 h…”

“…In general, intakes assessed by the FFQ were higher than WD-assessed intakes, but the correlation coefficients (r) Table 1 Characteristics of mother-infant pairs in weighed diary sub-sample and remainder of the cohort born by end of 2003 (8) Weighed diary group (n 50)…”

“…After stratification by current breastfeeding status and infant sex, a random number system was used to select ninety-eight families to participate in a weighed intake study between September 2001 and April 2003. In total, sixty-four (65 %) families approached agreed to participate in the study; fifty (51 %) successfully completed the WD.The FFQ Foods were included in the FFQ (8) following review of data from a UK survey of children aged 18 months (9) , 24 h …”

Breast-feeding and adherence to infant feeding guidelines do not influence bone mass at age 4 years

“…In contrast, amongst 330 eight-year-old children, those who had been breast-fed in infancy had higher bone mineral density (BMD) compared with those who had been formula-fed (2) . Previous work has also revealed uncertainty regarding the long-term impact of breast-v. formula-feeding, although the few studies with greater duration of follow-up suggest that any short-term differences are ameliorated by later childhood (3,4) .There are large variations in infant feeding practice in the UK (5,6) but little is known about the role of the weaning diet in relation to later bone health. These variations need to be considered.…”