The relationship between infant’s sweetened beverage consumption and guardian’s worries about their children’s food intake

Abstract

In order to investigate the relationship between infants’ beverage consumption and guardians’ worries about their children’s food intake, infant’s characteristics and body size, a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted for 300 guardians of 18-month infants at dental health checkups held by city health centers in Tokyo. We asked them about consumption frequency and amount of “100% vegetable juice and fruit juice (hereafter, 100% juice)” and “sweetened beverage like ion water and lactobacillus beverage.” Infant’s characteristics and body size were not different between with and without consumption of these beverages. Guardians of infants with consumption of 100% juice were significantly more worried about infant feeding in 3 out of 12 items such as preferring sweetened beverages and sweets to meal. Because dietary patterns in early life could be the basis for future dietary preference, it is necessary to provide information about appropriate beverage intake.