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Abstract
Family characteristics such as education level or income are related to infant feeding practices. This study aimed to characterize infant feeding practices and investigate their associations with family characteristics. Analyses were performed with data from a French nationwide cohort, Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance (ELFE). Feeding practices were characterized by two methods, a principal component analysis and a hierarchical ascendant classification (n = 8922). This characterization was conducted in three steps: considering firstly only introduction of main food groups, then also food pieces and finally adding the type of complementary food. The associations between family characteristics and the infant feeding patterns or clusters were tested by linear or multinomial regressions (n = 7556). Besides breastfeeding duration and age of first introduction of complementary foods, it appeared also important to consider specific food groups such as sweetened beverages and cow’s milk, and the introduction of food pieces, to describe feeding practices. Recommended feeding practices (longer breastfeeding, complementary food in the right period) were related to higher maternal age and education level, so was migration status, the presence of older children, low income or the mothers’ attendance to pre-birth preparation classes. The interrelations between feeding practices and family characteristics must be considered when examining the influence of feeding practices on child’s health.
Highlights
The first months of life are a critical and sensitive period for later health status; during this time window, several exposures represent opportunities to foster a healthy growth and development for children [1]
complementary feeding (CF) practices are defined by the timing and the content and by the order of introduction of the different food groups, the introduction of food pieces, that have been related to food diversity later in life [9], and the type of food
Feeding practices not recommended by current guidelines were less frequent in with older maternal age, higher education level, and later return to work
Summary
The first months of life are a critical and sensitive period for later health status; during this time window, several exposures (including diet) represent opportunities to foster a healthy growth and development for children [1]. Infant feeding is characterized by a first period of exclusive milk feeding, with exclusive breastfeeding recommended for the first 6 months or at least 4 months of life [3,4]. Because of the temporal superimposition of milk and CF, some studies have found strong associations between breast feeding (BF) duration and age at CF introduction [6,7,8]. Only few studies have considered the full diet before age 1 year (and none before age 6 months) [10]
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