The Relationship between Breastfeeding and Dietary Patterns of Children Aged 7 to 10 Years

Background and Objectives: Evidence suggests that children's dietary preferences may be related to the type of feeding in the first year of life. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between breastfeeding and dietary patterns in children aged 7 to 10 years.  Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 388 children (aged 7-10 years), who were recruited from the elementary schools in Tehran, Iran. Information on the type of feeding during infancy and the duration of feeding were collected by the children’s health records and interviewing with their mothers. The dietary intakes of children were collected by interviewing with their mothers using a food frequency questionnaire. Three major dietary patterns in the study population were identified by explanatory factor analysis method, which include ‘western’, ‘healthy’ and ‘vegetable’ dietary patterns. SPSS software (ver. 22) and Stata software (ver. 13) were used for the data analysis and a p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: There was no significant relationship between breastfeeding with any of the major dietary patterns. Breastfeeding for > 6 months was positively associated with the child’s height (P=0.026), while it had no significant association with the child’s weight and body mass index (BMI). Also there was a significant negative association between breastfeeding for > 6 months and rank of birth (p=0.01). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, there was no significant relationship between breastfeeding and major dietary patterns in children. More studies with larger sample size are warranted.