Human Milk Feeding and Ultraprocessed Food Intake in Toddlerhood

Abstract

Objective:

The objective of the study was to estimate associations between early-life human milk feeding and ultraprocessed food (UPF) intake at two timepoints during toddlerhood among children born at <35 weeks’ gestation.

Study Design:

Children were enrolled in the Omega Tots trial (2012–2017, Ohio) at 10–17 months’ corrected age after having discontinued human milk and formula feeding. Caregivers reported children’s human milk feeding history at baseline and past month diet through a food frequency questionnaire at baseline and follow-up (180 days later). We used the NOVA classification system to estimate UPF intake. We estimated covariate-adjusted associations between human milk feeding (ever and duration) and UPF intake at baseline and follow-up using linear and logistic regression.

Results:

Nearly 89% (n = 295) of 333 toddlers had received human milk but only 4.2% (n = 14) were fed exclusively human milk to 6 months of age. UPFs represented 37.7 (standard deviation [SD] = 13.2)% and 43.4 (SD = 11.3)% of total calories at the two timepoints. Human milk feeding (exclusive or otherwise) was unassociated with UPF intake in toddlerhood (e.g., months of exclusive human milk feeding with the number of daily servings of UPFs at follow-up: β = −0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.26, 0.08).

Conclusion:

In this sample of toddlers born preterm, any exposure to as well as the duration of human milk feeding was unassociated with UPF intake during the second year of life. These results require replication in larger samples given the small number of children in some human milk feeding categories.