The start healthy feeding guidelines for infants and toddlers

Abstract

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide nutrition and health guidance for Americans but do not address dietary and feeding recommendations for infants and toddlers under 2 years of age ( 1 US Department of AgricultureNutrition and Your Health. 5th ed. Home and Garden, 2000 Google Scholar ). Yet parents and caregivers need practical guidance about how to feed infants and toddlers, both to assure normal growth and to lay the foundation for later healthy eating habits, which, among other benefits, may help prevent obesity and other health problems during and after childhood. The objective of the Start Healthy Feeding Guidelines is to provide parents and caregivers with practical information about feeding infants and toddlers. These are meant to complement and expand on statements by other expert groups and authoritative bodies. This paper describes the rationale for these Guidelines. The methodology, results, and complete references used to develop the guidelines are described elsewhere ( 2 Pac S. McMahon K. Ripple M. Reidy K. Ziegler P. Myers E. Development of the Start Healthy Feeding Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers. J Am Diet Assoc. 2004; 104: 455-467 Google Scholar ). N. Butte is a professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; K. Cobb is an expert consultant, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Old Saybrook, CT; J. Dwyer is a professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA; L. Graney is WIC Project Nutritionist, Sheboygan, WI; W. C. Heird is professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; and K. Rickard is professor of nutrition and dietetics, Indiana University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indianapolis.