What do babies eat? Evaluation of a food frequency questionnaire to assess the diets of infants aged 12 months.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relative validity of an FFQ for assessing nutrient intakes in 12-month-old infants.


METHODS
The FFQ was developed to assess the diets of infants born to women in the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), a population-based survey of young women and their offspring. The energy and nutrient intakes obtained from an interviewer-administered FFQ were compared with those obtained from 4 d weighed diaries (WD).


METHODS
A sub-sample of fifty infants (aged 1 year) from the SWS had their diets assessed by both methods. The FFQ recorded the frequencies and amounts of foods and drinks consumed by the infants over the previous 28 d; milk consumption was recorded separately. The WD recorded the weights of all foods and drinks consumed by the infants on 4 d following the FFQ completion.


RESULTS
The Spearman rank correlation coefficients for intakes of energy, macronutrients and eighteen micronutrients, determined by the two methods, ranged from r = 0.25 to 0.66. Bland-Altman statistics showed that mean differences between methods were in the range +5% to +60% except for vitamin D (+106%). Differences in micronutrient intake were partly explained by changes in patterns of milk consumption between the two assessments.


CONCLUSIONS
Although there were differences in absolute energy and nutrient intakes between methods, there was reasonable agreement in the ranking of intakes. The FFQ is a useful tool for assessing energy and nutrient intakes of healthy infants aged around 12 months.
Marriott
Lynne D
LD
MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.
Inskip
Hazel M
HM
Borland
Sharon E
SE
Godfrey
Keith M
KM
Law
Catherine M
CM
Robinson
Sian M
SM
D015930:Diet Records; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008297:Male; D018977:Micronutrients / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014886:Weaning
D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D018977:Micronutrients