Abstract
Adequate and balanced nutrition is essential to promote optimal child growth and a long and healthy life. After breastfeeding, the second step is the introduction of complementary feeding (CF), a process that typically covers the period from 6 to 24 months of age. This process is, however, still highly controversial, as it is heavily influenced by socio-cultural choices, as well as by the availability of specific local foods, by family traditions, and pediatrician beliefs. The Società Italiana di Pediatria Preventiva e Sociale (SIPPS) together with the Federazione Italiana Medici Pediatri (FIMP), the Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo e le Origine della Salute e delle Malattie (SIDOHaD), and the Società Italiana di Nutrizione Pediatrica (SINUPE) have developed evidence-based recommendations for CF, given the importance of nutrition in the first 1000 days of life in influencing even long-term health outcomes. This paper includes 38 recommendations, all of them strictly evidence-based and overall addressed to developed countries. The recommendations in question cover several topics such as the appropriate age for the introduction of CF, the most appropriate quantitative and qualitative modalities to be chosen, and the relationship between CF and the development of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) later in life.
Highlights
Adequate and balanced nutrition is indispensable for the optimal growth of neonates, infants, and young children and is a crucial prerequisite for a long and healthy life.Proper nutrition starts with breastfeeding, which occurs in all countries of the world, and whose many positive effects, even in the long term, are still being investigated and increasingly confirmed
The search for primary studies was first carried out from the evidence syntheses, evidence-based guidelines (GLs), and systematic reviews (SRs) and was completed to include studies published later than those included in the SRs and those considered to be of interest
They participated in all the other phases of the drafting process each one of them according to their specific expertise; The methodology team and authors without Conflict of Interest (COI) checked the correctness and consistency of each part of the paper and especially of the recommendations; each author was asked to vote and to express and explain their disagreement anonymously; The results of vote counting and, in particular, the reasons for any disagreement were jointly discussed to produce the final version of the conclusions and recommendations hereunder
Summary
Adequate and balanced nutrition is indispensable for the optimal growth of neonates, infants, and young children and is a crucial prerequisite for a long and healthy life. Pediatri—FIMP); Analysis of the origins of chronic-degenerative diseases: Italian Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (Società Italiana per lo Sviluppo e le Origini della Salute e delle Malattie—SIDOHaD); Pediatric nutrition: Italian Society of Pediatric Nutrition These recommendations are intended to be a tool, based on rigorously evidence-based scientific analysis, to be used by pediatricians in their efforts to promote the health of today’s children as well as that of tomorrow’s adults and seniors
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