Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition
Background: Added sugar consumption is associated with detrimental health conditions, such as dental caries, asthma, obesity, altered lipid profiles, and elevated blood pressure in older children. The American Heart Association recommends that children under 2 years avoid added sugar consumption.
Objectives: To provide national estimates of added sugar consumption among infants 6-23 months.
Methods: Using a single 24 hour recall from NHANES 2011-2014, we estimated the prevalence and mean consumption of added sugars (tsp), by age, sex, poverty index ratio (PIR), and race and Hispanic origin, among infants and toddlers aged 6-23 months (n=806). We used SUDAAN to conduct all analyses and we evaluated differences between groups using a t statistic and tests of trend across ordinal variables using orthogonal contrast matrices.
Results: More than 8 in 10 infants and toddlers aged 6-23 months (85% (Standard Error (SE) 1.5) reported any consumption of added sugar on a given day. Among infants 6-11 months, 61% (SE 3.2) consumed added sugars, and nearly all toddlers 12-18 months (98% SE .65) and 19-23 months (99%, SE 1.0) consumed added sugars. Mean added sugar consumption was 4.2 tsp (SE 0.26) for those 6-23 months. Consumption increased significantly by quadratic trend by age, from 0.9 tsp (SE 0.12) among infants 6-11 months, 5.5 tsp (SE 0.36) among toddlers 12-18 months and 7.1 tsp (SE 0.55) among toddlers 19-23 months. Among all infants and toddlers (6-23 months), non-Hispanic whites consumed fewer teaspoons of added sugar, 3.8 tsp (SE 0.33), compared to non-Hispanic blacks, 5.4 tsp (SE 0.62). We observed a similar pattern among toddlers 12-18 and 19-23 months, but not among infants 6-11 months. There were no significant differences by sex or PIR for any age group.
Conclusions: Added sugar consumption begins early in life and exceeds current recommendations.