With childhood obesity reaching epidemic proportions, knowing more about infants' and toddlers' eating habits can help parents, health care professionals, and nutritionists address this issue more effectively. We conducted a study of the feeding patterns of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (FITS)), a followup to the groundbreaking FITS 2002 study of infants and toddlers (ages 4 to 24 months), to obtain updated information on the diets and eating habits of U.S. infants and toddlers ages from birth to 48 months of age.

The study addressed two key research questions: (1) How have nutrient and food intake patterns of infants and toddlers 4 to 24 months of age changed in the six years since FITS 2002? (2) What are the nutrient and food intake patterns of younger infants (up to 3 months) and older toddlers and preschoolers (24 to 48 months)?

Mathematica collected data on infants’ and toddlers’ food choices and dietary supplement usage, nutrient impact of these choices (compared to the Dietary Reference Intakes), food sources of nutrients, feeding practices (including breastfeeding, introduction of solids, and water), infant and toddler growth and developmental milestones, physical activity and screen time, and participation in WIC. The survey consisted of a recruitment/household interview, a telephone 24-hour dietary recall, and a second 24-hour recall on a 25 percent random subsample of respondents to estimate distributions of usual food and nutrient intake. The University of Minnesota's Nutrition Coordinating Center collected the dietary recall data using the Nutrition Data System for Research. The sample included about 4,300 recruitment interviews and about 3,370 dietary recall interviews with parents or caregivers to ensure precision reporting for 12 age groups of infants and toddlers ages 0 to 48 months.

Comparisons of food and nutrient intake data for infants and toddlers 4 to 24 months were made for FITS 2002 and FITS 2008. In addition to dietary data, information on other potential correlates of overweight and obesity, such as infant feeding practices, breastfeeding, children’s time spent watching TV and videos, physical activity levels, and mothers’ heights and weights, was collected to support more detailed analysis.