Understanding What’s Happening in Infant Feeding: A Look at Baseline Clinical Data for the Optimize Infant and Toddler Feeding for Obesity Prevention Collaborative

Background: Evidence increasingly supports the importance of the first 1000 days of development for obesity prevention and overall child health. However, recent national studies highlight many relevant gaps in early child nutrition. Only 36% of children are breastfed for the recommended duration (≥12 months). In addition, 55% of infants are introduced to complementary foods before ≅6 months, and 16% before 4 months. On a given day about a quarter of children ages 6-12 months reportedly eat no fruits or vegetables, but about a third consume sugary beverages/snacks, a value that more than doubles before age two. Resources are now available to …