Many U.S. babies and toddlers still don't have a balanced diet

Despite some recent improvements in howU.S. parents feed young children, more than half of babiesaren'tgetting any breast milk and many toddlers don'teatenough fruits and veggies, a new study suggests.

About two in five infants consume breast milk, which doctorsrecommend for the health of mothers and babies alike. Thatstatistic didn'tchange much over the study period from 2005 to2012. But more parents stopped giving infants solid foodsbefore six months of age, a practice doctors discourage becausesolids are harder to swallow and can be less nutritious andhigher in calories than breast milk or infant formula.

At least nine in 10 toddlers consume at least a little bitof either fruit or veggies on a typical day, and this didn't change much during the study period, researchers report inPediatrics. But the most common veggie was potatoes, and theleast popular option was dark green vegetables.

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"We knew from previous studies that more work was needed toimprove feeding habits in this age group, and we observed manyof the same trends in our study: a substantial proportion ofAmerican infants are not breastfed, vegetable consumption islower than desired, and consumption of sweetened beverages andsugary snacks is prevalent, said study co-author GandarvakaMiles, a public health researcher at the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill.

However, we did observe some trends in the rightdirection, Miles added by email.

Pediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeedinfants until at least six months of age because it can reducebabies' risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infantdeath syndrome, allergies, childhood obesity and diabetes.

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Mothers can benefit too, with longer periods ofbreastfeeding linked to lower risks of depression, bonedeterioration and certain cancers.

From 2005 to 2008 and again from 2009 to 2012, researcherssurveyed parents about infant and toddler eating habits. For thenew study, they compared data collected from a total of 2,359participants.

The proportion of babies under six months of age who werebreastfed, exclusively or not, was little changed during this
time and was about 36 per cent by the end of the study period.

In this age group, however, there was a meaningful reductionin use of infant cereals and fruit juices for babies, which werebeing fed to 26 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, by the endof the study. Pediatricians recommend delaying fruit juice untilafter age one.

With the older children in the study, researchers foundtoddlers were more likely to consume fried white potatoes than
green vegetables. Consumption of green veggies fell by halfduring the study to only about 8 percent of toddlers by the end.

"The rates for vegetable consumption are disappointing, asmost parents will know that vegetables are healthy but this
isn't translating into consumption rates in their children," Dr.Helen Coulthard of De Montfort University in the UK, who wasn'tinvolved in the study, said by email.

Early eating habits

One limitation of the study is that parents'ability toaccurately recall and report on how they fed their childrenduring infancy and early childhood isn't always reliable, theauthors note. Researchers also didn't account for portion sizes.

Still, the findings suggest that parents who struggle tofeed their kids the way doctors recommend may be in goodcompany, said Dr. Myles Faith, a researcher at the University atBuffalo who wasn't involved in the study.

One of the best ways to get kids to try more foods is tostick with it, and keep putting different things in front ofthem to taste, Faith said by email.

"Repeated exposure to foods increases children's preferencesand intake," Faith added. "So, the more opportunities infantsand children have to see, taste, and experience fruits andvegetables, the more receptive they should become over time."

These efforts matter because they can influence children'seating habits and health later in life, said Dr. Elise Mok ofthe Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center inMontreal.

"Early diet has been associated with weight status duringchildhood and cardiometabolic health in adulthood," Mok, whowasn't involved in the study, said by email.