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Indicators of dietary patterns in Danish infants at 9 months of age
Louise B B Andersen1, Christian Mølgaard2, Kim F Michaelsen2
1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark; lbbandersen@gmail.com.
Insights
Understanding infant dietary patterns is key for early intervention. This study identified factors like maternal BMI and parental background linked to less healthy infant diets, aiding targeted prevention strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Adverse infant dietary patterns require early identification for prevention.
- Understanding indicators of poor infant nutrition is crucial for timely intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate associations between family and child indicators and infant dietary patterns at 9 months.
- To identify risk factors for unfavorable infant diets.
Main Methods:
- Principal component analysis identified two infant dietary patterns: 'Family Food' and 'Health-Conscious Food'.
- Multiple linear regressions analyzed associations with various indicators in a pooled sample (n=374) from two cohorts.
- Cohorts distinguished by maternal obesity status.
Main Results:
- Lower 'Family Food' scores (transitioning to family meals) linked to younger infant age, higher BMI z-scores, immigrant parents, shared cooking, and fathers in the labor market.
- Lower 'Health-Conscious Food' scores (less healthy diets) associated with higher maternal BMI, more children, higher infant BMI z-scores, and older infant age at diet registration.
- Specific maternal, paternal, household, and child characteristics correlate with infant dietary patterns.
Conclusions:
- Identified key associations between infant dietary patterns and family/child characteristics.
- Findings can improve identification of infants at risk for adverse dietary patterns.
- Early, targeted preventive support for at-risk infants is potentially enabled.
Background:
It is important to increase the awareness of indicators associated with adverse infant dietary patterns to be able to prevent or to improve dietary patterns early on.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between a wide range of possible family and child indicators and adherence to dietary patterns for infants aged 9 months.
Design:
The two dietary patterns 'Family Food' and 'Health-Conscious Food' were displayed by principal component analysis, and associations with possible indicators were analysed by multiple linear regressions in a pooled sample (n=374) of two comparable observational cohorts, SKOT I and SKOT II. These cohorts comprised infants with mainly non-obese mothers versus infants with obese mothers, respectively.
Results:
A lower Family Food score indicates a higher intake of liquid baby food, as this pattern shows transition from baby food towards the family's food. Infants, who were younger at diet registration and had higher body mass index (BMI) z-scores at 9 months, had lower Family Food pattern scores. A lower Family Food pattern score was also observed for infants with immigrant/descendant parents, parents who shared cooking responsibilities and fathers in the labour market compared to being a student, A lower Health-Conscious Food pattern score indicates a less healthy diet. A lower infant Health-Conscious Food pattern score was associated with a higher maternal BMI, a greater number of children in the household, a higher BMI z-score at 9 months, and a higher infant age at diet registration.
Conclusions:
Associations between infant dietary patterns and maternal, paternal, household, and child characteristics were identified. This may improve the possibility of identifying infants with an increased risk of developing unfavourable dietary patterns and potentially enable an early targeted preventive support.
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