Lactating Mothers’ Dietary Energy Density and Infants’ Growth

Background: Great interests have been drawn to the quality of diet. Dietary energy density is a good indicator of diet quality. In spite of the comprehensive concept of energy density rather than energy intake, no studies have evaluated the dietary energy density of lactating mothers. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the association between dietary energy density and infants’ growth. Methods: Dietary intake data were collected from 300 lactating mothers through the 168-item food frequency questionnaire. Data on physical activity were reported by participant’s responding International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The anthropometric features were taken from the health records in health centers. Findings: Infants’ weight, height, head circumference, and weight for height at birth, and 2 and 4 months later were not significantly different within any of 4 categories of energy density. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that there is no association between quartiles of mothers’ dietary energy density and infants’ weight, length, weight for length, and head circumference growth by the age of 2 and 4 months.