Dietary patterns of 6–24‐month‐old children are associated with nutrient content and quality of the diet

Abstract

We determined the associations of dietary patterns with energy/nutrient intakes and diet quality. Previously collected single 24‐hr dietary recalls for children aged 6–11 months (n = 1,585), 12–17 months (n = 1,131), and 18–24 months (n = 620) from four independent studies in low socio‐economic populations in South Africa were pooled. A maximum‐likelihood factor model, with the principal‐factor method, was used to derive dietary (food) patterns. Associations between dietary pattern scores and nutrient intakes were determined using Kendall's Rank Correlations, with Bonferroni‐adjusted significance levels. For both 6–11 months and 12–17 months, the formula milk/reverse breast milk pattern was positively associated with energy and protein intake and mean adequacy ratio (MAR). The family foods pattern (6–11 months) and rice and legume pattern (12–17 months) were positively associated with plant protein, fibre, and PU fat; both for total intake and nutrient density of the complementary diet. These two patterns were also associated with the dietary diversity score (DDS; r = 0.2636 and r = 0.2024, respectively). The rice pattern (18–24 months) showed inverse associations for nutrient intakes and nutrient densities, probably because of its inverse association with fortified maize meal. The more westernized pattern (18–24 months) was positively associated with unfavourable nutrients, for example, saturated fat and cholesterol. These results highlight that underlying dietary patterns varied in terms of energy/nutrient composition, nutrient adequacy, nutrient densities of the complementary diet, and dietary diversity.

Comportamiento alimentario, suficiencia dietaria y estado nutricional en niños entre 6 a 18 meses

“…Cabe resaltar que la adecuación de calcio, hierro y zinc en la muestra general, según sexo y estado nutricional, estuvieron dentro de rangos esperados, siendo micronutrientes críticos en esta etapa del crecimiento y desarrollo. Esto se puede relacionar con la inclusión habitual en la dieta de estos niños de lácteos, huevo, legumbres, proteínas de origen animal y cereales fortificados, lo mismo fue descrito en otros estudios en donde se evidenció una relación positiva en la ingesta de estos micronutrientes críticos en patrones alimentarios que predomina el consumo de fórmulas infantiles, lácteos y cereales fortificados, como también la diversidad en los alimentos predice una ingesta adecuada de estos micronutrientes críticos 44,45 .…”

Effects of egg as an early complementary food on growth of 6- to 9-month-old infants: a randomised controlled trial

“…Recruitment and enrolment occurred from 16th February 2021-7th July 2021, while exiting from the study occurred six months from the day of enrolment. The study site has high rate of unemployment, and the typical diet of the infants is maize meal porridge, rice, legumes, sweets and savoury snacks (16)(17)(18) . Infants were enrolled into the study at the age of 6 to < 9 months if the mother/caregiver resides in the study municipality and if the infant was born a singleton.…”

Retail Cost and Energy Adjusted Cost Are Associated with Dietary Diversity and Nutrient Adequacy for Diets of 6–24 Months Children

“…For the current study, an existing dataset was used which consisted of pooled data of previously collected 24-h dietary recalls (n = 3336) for 6-24-month-old children from four independent South African studies [21]. All four of these studies were done in resourcepoor settings: two in rural sites in KwaZulu-Natal Province [22][23][24], one in both an urban and a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal Province [25], and one in a peri-urban area in North West Province [26,27].…”

“…The pooled dataset contained a variety of dietary intakes, ranging from mostly maizebased to substantial use of commercial infant products. As described previously [21], the 24-h dietary recalls were recoded to ensure that coding and analysis were standardized across the dietary surveys, and that all records were analyzed with the 2017 South African Food Composition Database [28], which includes an updated section on infant foods. Estimated intake of breast milk was assumed according to age: 675 mL for age 6-11 months, 615 mL for age 12-17 months, and 550 mL for age 18-24 months [29].…”

“…A recently published paper reported that for diets of 6-24-month-old children in low socioeconomic settings in South Africa, underlying dietary patterns differ in diet quality based on various indicators of diet quality [21]. Using the same dataset, the aim of this study was to determine whether nutrient adequacy and dietary diversity was associated with the cost of the diet.…”