Breastfeeding and Toddler Diet Quality

As a nutritional biochemist, I am always interested in how we can support diet quality and food security, especially for low-income populations. Interestingly, a recent study published in the Journal of Human Lactation looked at 1,226 WIC participants found that breastfeeding duration was associated with improved diet quality for the toddler at 36 months of age. The study was a secondary analysis set up to look at within-individual associations over time. This means that rather than having any type of intervention, the researchers retrospectively analyzed data that was collected for a different study.

In order to measure the diet quality of the toddlers, the study used the USDA’s Healthy Eating Index. After conducting the phone interviews to determine the diet quality, the researchers looked back at duration of breastfeeding and found that the longer the dyad breastfed for the better the diet quality. It is important to point out that these families had nutritional support through their WIC benefits – so this speaks to the WIC program’s ability to support healthy diets for children as well.

This is not the first study to investigate the impact of breastfeeding on diet quality and similar results were found in an Australian study looking at toddler diet quality. This study found that in addition to breastfeeding status, maternal modeling of healthy eating behaviors also impacted the toddler’s diet quality.

Some studies have also looked at the interaction between breastfeeding cessation and toddler diet quality. Another study that was done in Australia found that both early breastfeeding cessation and early introduction of solids was associated with preference for energy-dense, low nutrient foods.

While we certainly don’t have a complete understanding of how children develop food preferences, we do have evidence-based recommendations that encourage children to have a healthy variety of foods in their diet:

1. Exposure: make sure your children see a variety of colors, textures, and cooking styles represented in their age-appropriate foods. Encourage your kids to put foods on their plates even if they don’t want to eat them.

2. Access: make it easy for your toddlers to access healthy foods. This can mean having appropriately sized fruits, veggies, cheese, meats, and whole grains available where they can reach them.

3. Modeling: let them see people they look up to (parents, friends, babysitters, relatives, etc.) eating foods that they may be hesitant to try.

Looking for more information about nutrition during lactation? Download my two page quick guide!