Problems Start Early in the Diets of Infants and Toddlers
Feeding Infants and Toddlers
With childhood obesity reaching epidemic proportions, knowing more about infants' and toddlers' eating habits can help parents, health care professionals, and nutritionists address this issue more effectively.
Mathematica's Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS), conducted in 2002 and sponsored by the Gerber Products Company, is a treasure trove of information about the diets of more than 3,000 infants and toddlers.
Initial findings released in late 2003 showed that infants and toddlers were consuming too many calories and eating inappropriate foods as young as four to six months.
Detailed findings were published in a January 2006 supplement to The Journal of the American Dietetic Association (JADA).
Fruit and vegetable intakes do not meet recommendations.
In fact, one-fourth to one-third of children six months of age ate no fruits or vegetables on a given day, contributing to less than adequate fiber intakes.
Analyses that looked at the relationship between portion sizes, energy density (more calories per ounce), and the number of times children had something to eat or drink over the course of the day provided suggestive evidence of energy self-regulation behaviors, especially among infants.
Infants and toddlers who ate more often during the day tended to consume smaller portions.
Communicating this finding to parents and caregivers is important, so they can be more sensitive to infants' and toddlers' cues of hunger and satiety and avoid feeding behaviors that can disrupt natural energy self-regulation and promote excessive food consumption.
A major contribution of these new analyses sheds light on Hispanic infants' and toddlers' diets.
