Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Pediatrics

Dietary patterns in infancy are associated with child diet and weight outcomes at 6 years

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, pages 783–788 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

To assess whether patterns of dietary exposures at 9 months are associated with child diet and weight at 6 years.

Methods:

Data for this study were from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II and Year 6 Follow-Up Studies. All data were self-reported monthly. Results of a previous latent class analysis revealed five dietary patterns varying in milk and solid food intake. These five infant dietary patterns were used in the current study to predict child diet and weight outcomes at 6 years, while controlling for confounding variables.

Results:

Infants with dietary patterns higher in fruit and vegetable intake at 9 months had higher fruit and vegetable intake at 6 years. Similarly, infants with the dietary pattern characterized by foods high in energy density (that is, French Fries and sweet desserts) continued to have higher consumption of these foods at 6 years, and had a higher prevalence of overweight at 6 years (43%) compared with the other classes. Formula-fed infants had higher sugar-sweetened beverage intake and fewer met the dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake at 6 years than breastfed infants, controlling for factors such as income.

Conclusions:

Early decisions about milk-feeding, and the types of solid foods offered in infancy can foreshadow dietary patterns and obesity risk later in childhood. Infants who were offered energy-dense foods had higher intake of these foods at 6 years of age.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mennella JA, Jagnow CP, Beauchamp GK . Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants. Pediatrics 2001; 107: E88.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Perrine CG, Galuska DA, Thompson FE, Scanlon KS . Breastfeeding duration is associated with child diet at 6 years. Pediatrics 2014; 134: S50–S55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Saavedra JM, Deming D, Dattilo A, Reidy K . Lessons from the feeding infants and toddlers study in North America: what children eat, and implications for obesity prevention. Ann Nutr Metab 2013; 62: 27–36.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Grimm KA, Kim SA, Yaroch AL, Scanlon KS . Fruit and vegetable intake during infancy and early childhood. Pediatrics 2014; 134: S63–S69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Park S, Pan L, Sherry B, Li R . The association of sugar-sweetened beverage intake during infancy with sugar-sweetened beverage intake at 6 years of age. Pediatrics 2014; 134: S56–S62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Pan L, Li R, Park S, Galuska DA, Sherry B, Freedman DS . A longitudinal analysis of sugar-sweetened beverage intake in infancy and obesity at 6 Years. Pediatrics 2014; 134: S29–S35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Fein SB, Labiner-Wolfe J, Shealy KR, Li R, Chen J, Grummer-Strawn LM . Infant feeding practices study II: Study methods. Pediatrics 2008; 122: S28–S35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Rose CM, Savage JS, Birch LL . Patterns of early dietary exposures have implications for maternal and child weight outcomes. Obesity 2015; 24: 430–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lanza ST, Collins LM, Lemmon DR, Schafer JL, PROC LCA . A SAS procedure for latent class analysis. Struct Equ Modeling 2007; 14: 671–694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Fein SB, Li R, Chen J, Scanlon KS, Grummer-Strawn LM . Methods for the year 6 follow-up study of children in the Infant Feeding Practices Study II. Pediatrics 2014; 134: S4–S12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Briefel RR, Reidy K, Karwe V, Jankowski L, Hendricks K . Toddlers’ transition to table foods: Impact on nutrient intakes and food patterns. J Am Diet Assoc 2004; 104: 38–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Devaney B, Ziegler P, Pac S, Karwe V, Barr SI . Nutrient intakes of infants and toddlers. J Am Diet Assoc 2004; 104: 14–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Committee DGA. Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, to the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Agricultural Research Service 2010. Available at http://www.nutriwatch.org/05Guidelines/dga_advisory_2010.pdf.

  14. Kuczmarski RJ, Ogden CL, Guo SS, Grummer-Strawn LM, Flegal KM, Mei Z et al. 2000 CDC Growth Charts for the United States: methods and development. Vital Health Stat 11 2002; 246: 1–190.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kiefte-de Jong JC, de Vries JH, Bleeker SE, Jaddoe VW, Hofman A, Raat H et al. Socio-demographic and lifestyle determinants of ‘Western-like’and ‘Health conscious’ dietary patterns in toddlers. Br J Nutr 2013; 109: 137–147.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Northstone K, Emmett P, Nethersole F . The effect of age of introduction to lumpy solids on foods eaten and reported feeding difficulties at 6 and 15 months. J Hum Nutr Diet 2001; 14: 43–54.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Scott JA, Binns CW, Graham KI, Oddy WH . Predictors of the early introduction of solid foods in infants: results of a cohort study. BMC Pediatr 2009; 9: 60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Haycraft E, Farrow C, Blissett J . Maternal symptoms of depression are related to observations of controlling feeding practices in mothers of young children. J Fam Psychol 2013; 27: 159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Yu Z, Han S, Zhu J, Sun X, Ji C, Guo X . Pre-pregnancy body mass index in relation to infant birth weight and offspring overweight/obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Plos One 2013; 8: e61627.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Bray B, Lanza ST, Tan X . An Introduction to Elminating Bias in Classify-Analyze Approaches for Latent Class Analysis. The Methodology Center at Penn State: University Park, PA, USA, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Rose CM, Savage JS, Birch LL . Predictors of early dietary exposure patterns and consequences for maternal and infant weight outcomes. Obesity 2015; 24: 430–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Vernarelli JA, Mitchell DC, Hartman TJ, Rolls BJ . Dietary energy density is associated with body weight status and vegetable intake in US children. J Nutr 2011; 141: 2204–2210.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Jones-Smith JC, Dieckmann MG, Gottlieb L, Chow J, Fernald LC . Socioeconomic status and trajectory of overweight from birth to mid-childhood: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Plos One 2014; 9: e100181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Uauy R, Peirano P . Breast is best: human milk is the optimal food for brain development. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 70: 433–434.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. McConley RL, Mrug S, Gilliland MJ, Lowry R, Elliott MN, Schuster MA et al. Mediators of maternal depression and family structure on child BMI: parenting quality and risk factors for child overweight. Obesity 2011; 19: 345–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Wardle J, Cooke L . Genetic and environmental determinants of children's food preferences. Br J Nutr 2008; 99: S15–S21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Caton SJ, Ahern SM, Remy E, Nicklaus S, Blundell P, Hetherington MM . Repetition counts: repeated exposure increases intake of a novel vegetable in UK pre-school children compared to flavour–flavour and flavour–nutrient learning. Br J Nutr 2013; 109: 2089–2097.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Birch LL, Anzman SL . Learning to eat in an obesogenic environment: a developmental systems perspective on childhood obesity. Child Dev Perspect 2010; 4: 138–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The manuscript work was funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture Grant #2011-67001-30117 Program A2121—Childhood Obesity Prevention: Transdisciplinary Graduate Education and Training in Nutrition and Family Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Childhood Obesity Research, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA,

    C M Rose & J S Savage

  2. Department of Foods and Nutrition, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA,

    L L Birch

Authors
  1. C M Rose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. L L Birch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J S Savage
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J S Savage.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rose, C., Birch, L. & Savage, J. Dietary patterns in infancy are associated with child diet and weight outcomes at 6 years. Int J Obes 41, 783–788 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.27

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.27

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links