Mom's Diet Determines Baby's Diet: Socioeconomic Status Influences Everything

What mom eats is often dependent on her socioeconomic background, according to recent findings published in the journal Pediatrics. This will ultimately determine what baby eats, too. 

"We found that differences in dietary habits start very early," said lead study author Xiaozhong Wen, MBBS, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of Buffalo School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics, in a news release. "Dietary patterns are harder to change later if you ignore the first year, a critical period for the development of taste preferences and the establishment of eating habits."

For the study, researchers analyzed eating patterns of more than 1,500 babies between six-months and 12-months-old. All the infants were part of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II, which was conducted between 2005 and 2007 as part of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers found dietary differences based on several factors such as mother's education, racial and ethnic background and household income.

Findings revealed that those with higher educations were more likely to have greater income and better diet, such as less sugar and more grains.

On the other hand, those with less funds (income of 25,000 or lower) had a diet higher in sugar and fat and were more likely to be Hispanic or African-American. Because of this, their children were more likely to have higher body mass index (BMI's) due to the consumption of unhealthy food items.

"There is substantial research to suggest that if you consistently offer foods with a particular taste to infants, they will show a preference for these foods later in life. So if you tend to offer healthy foods, even those with a somewhat bitter taste to infants, such as pureed vegetables, they will develop a liking for them. But if you always offer sweet or fatty foods, infants will develop a stronger preference for them or even an addiction to them," Wen concluded. "This is both an opportunity and a challenge. We have an opportunity to start making dietary changes at the very beginning of life."