Infant Feeding Practices and Their Association with Early-Life Nutrient Intake: Baseline Findings from the Baby-Act Trial
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Setting
2.3. Subjects/Sample
2.4. Assessments
- Type of feeding: infants’ diets were categorized as: (1) Only breastmilk (if exclusively fed breastmilk); (2) Breastmilk and formula (if fed breastmilk and also formula); or (3) Only formula (if exclusively fed infant formula). Furthermore, infants’ diets were categorized as consuming or not complementary foods (foods other than milk).
- Energy and macronutrient intake: this was calculated using a food database created using the Nutrition Data System for Research, developed by the Nutrition Coordinating Center of the University of Minnesota (version 25, 2014, program 2.8, Minneapolis, MN, USA) [18], as previously described and published [17]. This database was created for all the foods included in the FFQ based on foods typically consumed by infants in this age group [17]. For the infant formula, this database averaged the energy and nutrient values from the 10 most consumed infant formulas available in NDSR. To calculate the energy and nutrient for each food, the amount consumed per food per day was first calculated. For breastmilk volume intake, this was first calculated using the data from a recent meta-analysis of 167 studies conducted by Rios-Leyvraz and Yao [19] with breastmilk data for infants for each month from 0 to 24 months. The volume reported in Rios-Leyvraz and Yao [19] was used as the breastmilk volume by age in months, if infants were exclusively breastfed. If infants were partially breastfed, the volume in formula was subtracted from the volume as per that study [19], and what remained was considered as breastmilk volume intake. If the daily volume of formula exceeded the estimated total daily milk intake volume, a rule of 3 ounces (88.7 mL) per feeding was implemented, which was derived from the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) 2008 and 2016, the largest US cross-sectional surveys of caregivers of children from 0 to 48 months of age [20]. If infants were fed exclusively formula, the reported volume from formula was used as the total daily milk intake for this group. Once the volume of breastmilk and/or formula was established, as well as the amounts of other foods consumed by the infant per day, it was multiplied by the energy and macronutrient content of each food item per 1 ounce, as derived from the NDSR database directly. Lastly, the energy and nutrient amounts were summed for all food items to obtain total daily values. Estimated energy requirements were calculated per infant as per the Dietary References Intakes to determine if energy intake met these requirements [21].
2.5. Statistical Analysis
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Mean ± SD or N (%) |
---|---|
Infant | |
Age (months) | 0.71 ± 0.94 |
Gender | |
Female | 173 (46.9) |
Male | 195 (52.8) |
Hispanic 1 | 341 (92.7) |
Race | |
White | 234 (63.4) |
Black | 72 (19.5) |
American Indian | 2 (0.5) |
Other | 14 (3.8) |
Mixed race | 12 (3.3) |
No answer | 7 (1.9) |
Maternal | |
Age (years) | 26.7 ± 5.5 |
Hispanic | 341 (92.9) |
Race | |
White | 190 (51.5) |
Black | 121 (32.8) |
Asian | 1 (0.3) |
American Indian | 6 (1.6) |
Other | 25 (6.8) |
Mixed race | 1 (3.0) |
No answer | 13 (3.5) |
Educational level | |
Elementary (5 years) | 6 (1.6) |
Middle (8 years) | 4 (1.1) |
High School (12 years) | 147 (40.0) |
Technical/associate (13–14 years) | 104 (28.3) |
College (15–16 years) | 106 (28.9) |
Number of children | 0.7 ± 0.8 |
Duration of pregnancy (weeks) | 38.7 ± 1.2 |
Currently working | 157 (42.5) |
Use of prenatal vitamins 2 | 350 (94.9) |
Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2) 3 | 29.8 ± 7.9 |
Healthy weight | 68 (34.9) |
Overweight | 52 (26.7) |
Obesity | 73 (37.4) |
Variable | Only Breastmilk | Breastmilk + Infant Formula | Only Infant Formula | p-Value 1 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | ||
Overall | 143 | 39.9% | 169 | 47.2% | 46 | 12.8% | |
Infant sex | |||||||
Female | 69 | 19.3% | 75 | 20.9% | 23 | 6.40% | 0.703 |
Male | 74 | 20.7% | 94 | 26.3% | 23 | 6.40% | |
Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI 2 | |||||||
Healthy weight | 47 | 13.2% | 55 | 15.4% | 11 | 3.10% | 0.437 |
Overweight | 43 | 12.1% | 42 | 11.8% | 12 | 3.40% | |
Obesity | 51 | 14.3% | 72 | 20.2% | 23 | 6.50% |
Dietary Intake | Overall (n = 358) | Infant Sex | Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI Categories 1 | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Girls (n = 167) | Boys (n = 191) | p-Value * | Healthy Weight (n = 113) | Overweight (n = 97) | Obesity (n = 146) | p-Value * | ||||||||||||||
Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |||||||||
Energy (kcal/d) | 586 | ± | 202 | 585 | ± | 195 | 587 | ± | 209 | 0.875 | 581 | ± | 220 | 5787 | ± | 172 | 585 | ± | 205 | 0.965 |
Protein (g/d) | 11.8 | ± | 6.28 | 11.8 | ± | 6.29 | 11.8 | ± | 6.29 | 0.968 | 11.4 | ± | 6.64 | 11.5 | ± | 5.83 | 11.9 | ± | 6.13 | 0.798 |
Carbohydrate (g/d) | 60.7 | ± | 22.9 | 60.6 | ± | 22.3 | 60.8 | ± | 23.4 | 0.900 | 59.9 | ± | 24.6 | 59.7 | ± | 19.7 | 60.6 | ± | 22.8 | 0.939 |
Fat (g/d) | 33.8 | ± | 9.70 | 33.7 | ± | 9.15 | 33.8 | ± | 10.2 | 0.832 | 33.9 | ± | 10.7 | 33.5 | ± | 7.57 | 33.7 | ± | 10.1 | 0.967 |
Type of Feeding | Only Breastmilk | Breastmilk and Infant Formula | Only Infant Formula | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean ± SD | |||||||||
Overall | n = 143 | n = 169 | n = 46 | ||||||
Energy intake | 472 a | ± | 8.68 | 637 b | ± | 222 | 717 c | ± | 258 |
Protein intake | 7.1 a | ± | 0.14 | 13.7 b | ± | 6.10 | 18.1 c | ± | 6.52 |
Fat intake | 29.8 a | ± | 0.59 | 35.9 b | ± | 11.3 | 37.5 b | ± | 13.5 |
Carbohydrate intake | 46.7 a | ± | 0.92 | 66.6 b | ± | 24.3 | 77. 5 c | ± | 27.9 |
Girls | n = 69 | n = 75 | n = 23 | ||||||
Energy intake | 474 a | 11.6 | 625 b | 212 | 712 c | 242 | |||
Protein intake | 7.16 a | ± | 0.18 | 13.3 b | ± | 6.06 | 18.0 c | ± | 6.12 |
Fat intake | 29.9 a | ± | 0.73 | 35.3 b | ± | 10.5 | 37.2 b | ± | 12.7 |
Carbohydrate intake | 46.9 a | ± | 1.14 | 65.4 b | ± | 23.5 | 77.0 c | ± | 26.2 |
Boys | n = 74 | n = 94 | n = 23 | ||||||
Energy intake | 470 a | 6.0 | 646 b | 230 | 722 b | 278 | |||
Protein intake | 7.10 a | ± | 0.09 | 13.9 b | ± | 6.15 | 18.3 c | ± | 7.03 |
Fat intake | 29.7 a | ± | 0.39 | 36.3 b | ± | 11.9 | 37.7 b | ± | 14.5 |
Carbohydrate intake | 46.5 a | ± | 0.59 | 67.6 b | ± | 25.1 | 78.0 c | ± | 30.1 |
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Palacios, C.; Alvarez, E.; Kallis, M.G.; Valle, Y.; Pomeroy, J.; Campos, M. Infant Feeding Practices and Their Association with Early-Life Nutrient Intake: Baseline Findings from the Baby-Act Trial. Dietetics 2025, 4, 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/dietetics4020015
Palacios C, Alvarez E, Kallis MG, Valle Y, Pomeroy J, Campos M. Infant Feeding Practices and Their Association with Early-Life Nutrient Intake: Baseline Findings from the Baby-Act Trial. Dietetics. 2025; 4(2):15. https://doi.org/10.3390/dietetics4020015
Chicago/Turabian StylePalacios, Cristina, Elvira Alvarez, Maria Gabriela Kallis, Yari Valle, Jeremy Pomeroy, and Maribel Campos. 2025. "Infant Feeding Practices and Their Association with Early-Life Nutrient Intake: Baseline Findings from the Baby-Act Trial" Dietetics 4, no. 2: 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/dietetics4020015
APA StylePalacios, C., Alvarez, E., Kallis, M. G., Valle, Y., Pomeroy, J., & Campos, M. (2025). Infant Feeding Practices and Their Association with Early-Life Nutrient Intake: Baseline Findings from the Baby-Act Trial. Dietetics, 4(2), 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/dietetics4020015