Human Milk, Infant Formula, and Other Milks Fed to Infants and Toddlers in the United States, NHANES 2007-2018

Background For the first time, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans pro-vide specific guidance regarding the types of foods and beverages that should be offered in the first 2 years of life. Milk, in various forms (eg, human milk, infant formula, and cow's milk) contributes a large proportion of key nutrients to the diets of infants and toddlers in the United States.Objective The aim of this study was to determine the types of milk (human milk, infant formula, and other milk) fed to US infants and toddlers in the past 12 years and to describe trends over time.Design This was a cross-sectional analysis of 2-day, 24-hour dietary recalls. Participants/setting Data from the 2007-2018 National Health and Nutrition Exami-nation Survey were used for these analyses. Infants and toddlers aged 0 through 23.9 months with 2 days of dietary recall data (n 1/4 3,079) were included.Main outcome measures The main outcome was proportion of infants and toddlers fed different milk types.Statistical analyses performed Survey-adjusted weighted percentages were used to report sociodemographic characteristics and the proportion of subjects fed each milk type category by age group and survey cycles. Binary and multinomial logistic re-gressions were used to assess differences in subject characteristics by age groups. Results Sociodemographic characteristics did not differ by age group. The proportion of infants aged 0 to <6 months fed infant formula only was 60.2% in 2007-2012 and 44.8% in 2013-2018. The proportion of infants aged 6 to <12 months fed partially hydrolyzed infant formula only was 7.3% in 2007-2012 and 13.1% in 2013-2018. In toddlers (>12 months old), cow's milk was the predominant milk type in both 2007-2012 and 2013-2018.Conclusions The percentage of infants fed any human milk increased over the past decade. Unsweetened cow's milk was the most predominate milk type consumed among toddlers.

Automated summary

This study examines the types of milk fed to US infants and toddlers in the past 12 years. The findings show that the proportion of infants fed infant formula only has decreased, while the proportion of infants fed partially hydrolyzed infant formula has increased. Among toddlers, cow's milk remains the predominant milk type consumed.