Dietary intake of protein sources in infants between 7-24 months old: start time and compliance with recommendations

Abstract

Adequate nutrition includes breastfeeding, infant formula, and the incorporation of complementary feeding (CF).

Objective: To describe compliance with the recommendations for protein intake from CF in healthy infants between 7 and 24 months old.

Patients and Method: Healthy infants from an outpatient center were studied. To collect the variables under study, we designed and applied a questionnaire. We obtained demographic data, breastfeeding, use of formula, and incorporation and compliance with protein intake data. The analysis of variables was carried out with STATA software version 13, and the Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA were applied.

Results: 85 infants were studied, 54% were female, 68% of infants were exclusively breastfed until 6 months old, and 84.7% started complementary feeding at that age. 37.6% complied with the incorporation of fish, 49.4% with legumes, and 45.8% with egg. 52% of infants aged between 10 and 12 months and 83% of infants between 13 and 24 months consumed more beef, chicken, or turkey. This data was associated with being the first child and older age, as well as egg consumption where infants older than 12 months ate more than recommended. We observed lower than recommended fish consumption in 78% of infants aged between 10 and 12 months and 83.2% of infants between 13 and 24 months, of which 35% and 2.7% had never eaten fish, respectively. 45 infants were fed only with formula and complementary feeding, 28 (62%) of them received ≥ 1 g/kg/day of protein from infant formula.

Conclusions: Most infants were exclusively breastfed until 6 months old and incorporated complementary feeding at that age. Most infants incorporated legumes, eggs, and fish later than recommended, and there was excessive consumption of beef, chicken, or turkey and little consumption of fish, especially at older ages.