Nutrition plays a vital role in the growth and development of babies and young children. Early childhood is a critical period for establishing healthy eating habits that can have long-term implications for health outcomes.
study: Count Every Bite to Make Every Bite Count: Measurement Gaps and Future Directions for Dietary Assessment from Birth to 24 Months. Image credit: Yevgeny Atamanenko / Shutterstock.com
About the research
A new study published recently in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics draws attention to the need for improved methods for assessing nutritional intake in infants and young children.
Here, researchers from the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) evaluate the efficacy of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) in reducing childhood obesity while identifying gaps in dietary measurement. In addition, the researchers propose a new approach to identify potential measurement gaps
Limitations of current dietary assessment methods
Traditional dietary methods, such as 24-hour parental recall and food diaries, food frequency questionnaires, and image-based dietary assessment tools, are prone to error due to difficulties in estimating portion sizes and accurately recalling foods consumed. Furthermore, many current dietary assessment methods are not standardized, validated, and unable to capture the diversity and complexity of early dietary practices.
Many common and overlapping measurement gaps have also been assessed in other areas of data collection. These include the inability to record the setting, increased burden on the participant, and requiring too much time or money to properly administer. In addition, proxy reporting by many different caregivers, biased reporting, and known variation in the composition of human milk are potential sources of error whose impact on measurement accuracy remains unknown.
The development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based data processing and analysis tools is expanding. However, not enough attention is paid to the effect of individual, social and systemic biases in constructing the algorithms that underpin AI.
New digital technologies have been developed and are being developed that can passively and actively collect information both passively and actively. However, many of these approaches require additional fine-tuning to ensure their adaptability
The solution to counting bites
To address these limitations, the researchers propose the use of bite-counting technology as a potential solution to overcome these measurement gaps. By quantifying the number of bites taken during a meal, this technology can provide objective data on food intake, meal frequency, and self-regulatory behavior.
Adoption of bite-counting technology may lead to more accurate estimates of energy and nutrient intake in infants and young children. It can also help identify eating patterns, preferences and links between dietary behavior and health outcomes.
In the future, standardized assessment tools that integrate bite-counting technology could improve the accuracy and reliability of dietary intake measurements in infants and young children. Furthermore, these instruments can be developed to take into account age-specific variations in feeding practices, as well as the inclusion of culturally different instruments.
Future perspective
The current study findings have significant implications for future research and public health initiatives focused on early childhood nutrition.
Importantly, future studies are needed to validate bite-counting technology against established dietary assessment methods. By comparing the accuracy and reliability of bite counts with other measures, researchers can establish the validity of this new approach and ensure its applicability among different populations.
Bite counting technology offers the potential to gain insight into eating dynamics, such as self-regulatory and eating behaviors. Further investigation of these dynamics may inform interventions aimed at promoting healthy eating habits and preventing childhood obesity.
Longitudinal studies are also needed to assess the long-term impact of early feeding practice on health outcomes. By tracking dietary patterns from birth to 24 months and beyond, researchers can establish links between early nutrition and later health outcomes, such as growth, cognitive development and chronic disease risk.
With widespread collaboration, it is possible not only to make every bite count, but to make every bite count.”