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

• Published in: Public health nutrition Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 711 - 720
• Main Authors: Davis, Kathleen E, Li, Xilong, Adams-Huet, Beverley, Sandon, Lona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Age; Anthropometry; Automation; Babies; Black or African American; Body weight; Bottle Feeding; Breast Feeding; Breastfeeding & lactation; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diabetes; Diet; Diet Surveys; Disease control; Disease prevention; Ethnicity; Feeding; Feeding Behavior; Female; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Income; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Intakes; Male; Methods; Mexico - ethnology; Minority & ethnic groups; Nutrients; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Nutrition Surveys; Nutritional Epidemiology; Obesity; Overweight; Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology; Pediatric Obesity - etiology; Pediatrics; Preschool children; Prevalence; Public health; Race; Racial Groups; Research Papers; United States; Weaning; White People; United States; Mexico; United States > US; Texas; Feeding behaviours; Obesity; Paediatric; Child obesity; Diet; Infant nutrition
• ISSN: 1368-9800; 1475-2727
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980017003184

To compare infant and toddler anthropometric measurements, feeding practices and mean nutrient intakes by race/ethnicity and income. 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. The 2003-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Infants and toddlers (n 3669) aged 0-24 months. 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. 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.