Infant feeding practices and dietary consumption of US infants and toddlers: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2012

Kathleen E. Davis, Xilong Li, Beverley Adams-Huet, Lona Sandon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective To compare infant and toddler anthropometric measurements, feeding practices and mean nutrient intakes by race/ethnicity and income. Design Cross-sectional analysis using general linear modelling. Ten years of survey data (2003-2012) were combined to compare anthropometric measurements, feeding practices and mean nutrient intakes from a nationally representative US sample. Setting The 2003-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Subjects Infants and toddlers (n 3669) aged 0-24 months. Results Rates of overweight were higher among Mexican-American infants and toddlers (P=0·002). There were also several differences in feeding practices among groups based on race/ethnicity. Cessation of breast-feeding occurred earlier for non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American v. non-Hispanic white infants (3·6 and 4·2 v. 5·3 months; P<0·0001; P=0·001). Age at first feeding of solids was earlier for white than Mexican-American infants (5·3 v. 5·7 months; P=0·02). There were differences in almost all feeding practices based on income, including the lowest-income infants stopped breast-feeding earlier than the highest-income infants (3·2 v. 5·8 months, P<0·0001). Several differences in mean nutrient intakes by both race/ethnicity and income were also identified. Conclusions Our study indicates that disparities in overweight, feeding practices and mean nutrient intakes exist among infants and toddlers according to race/ethnicity, which cannot be disentangled from income.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)711-720
Number of pages10
JournalPublic Health Nutrition
Volume21
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2018

Keywords

  • Child obesity
  • Diet
  • Feeding behaviours
  • Infant nutrition
  • Obesity
  • Paediatric

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Nutrition and Dietetics
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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