Effect of dietary interventions during weaning period on parental practice and lipoproteins and vitamin D status in two-year-old children

Objective: Evaluate if a two-day course for parents on nutrition and applied baby food preparation had an effect on child’s intake of home-made foods, lipid concentration, and vitamin D status. Design: Randomized controlled trial at age 6 months and follow-up at ages 15 and 24 months. Setting: Four health care clinics in Kristiansand, Norway. Subjects: Thirty-nine pairs of 6-month-old children and their parents in the intervention group and 20 pairs in the control group. Results: At age 15 months, the intervention group had lower intakes of ready-made porridge (2.0 vs. 5.8 servings per week (p < 0.05)), lower intake of canned baby food (2.9 vs. 6.3 servings per week (p < 0.05)) and higher intakes of home-made porridge (4.8 servings vs. 0.9 servings per week (p < 0.001)) compared with the control group. The intervention group had higher HDL cholesterol concentrations at 2 years than the control group, 1.08 mol/l compared to 0.89 mol/l (p < 0.05). Conclusions: This is the first study to show that providing dietary information and applied baby food preparation to parents during the weaning period may have impact on the children’s diet at 15 and 24 months and improve their lipid profile. Our results call for studies with more power and longer follow-up.