Health Library

In the October 27, 2003, online issue of the InteliHealth Health News, a report on a study showed that children’s eating habits can start as early as age 2. The “Feeding Infants & Toddlers Study,” commissioned by baby food maker Gerber Products Company, showed that, “By 24 months, patterns look startlingly similar to some of the problematic American dietary patterns.” The article noted that recent research has found that roughly one in every five Americans is now considered obese, double the rate in the mid-1980s.

The study was conducted by random telephone interviews in 2002 that asked parents or primary caregivers what their youngsters, ages 4 months to 2 years, ate on that particular day. Up to a third of the children under 2 consumed no fruits or vegetables, according to the survey. And for those who did have a vegetable, French fries were the most common selection for children 15 months and older. Additionally, 30 to 40 percent of the children 15 months and up had a sugary fruit drink each day, and about 10 percent had soda.

A Chicago-area dietitian, Jodie Shield, who has written two books on child nutrition, noted, “If kids are having soda and soft drinks at such an early age, it’s going to be very, very challenging to introduce other types of foods for them later.”

The article stated that children aged 1 to 2 years require about 950 calories per day, but the study found that the median intake for that age group is 1,220 calories — an excess of nearly 30 percent. For those 7 months to 11 months old, the daily caloric surplus was about 20 percent.