Tracking of dietary patterns from early childhood to school age in the Brazilian Food and Nutritional Surveillance System, 2008–2019

Objective: i) Define children’s dietary patterns at three developmental stages—early childhood (1 to <3 years), preschool age (3 to <6 years), and school age (6 to <11 years)—and assess transitions over time; ii) Verify the association between exposure to exclusive breastfeeding and the trajectory of patterns Design: Cohort study using 2008–2019 data from the Brazilian Food and Nutritional Surveillance System. Setting: Standardized markers of previous-day food intake identified dietary patterns. Latent Transition Analysis assessed shifts over time and estimated the effect of exclusive breastfeeding for 3–6 months on dietary pattern transitions. Participants: 135,340 children. Results: Two dietary patterns emerged: higher ultra processed food intake and lower ultra processed food intake. Patterns showed notable stability over time. Exclusively breastfed children following a lower ultra processed food pattern in early childhood had 11% higher odds (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.06 – 1.16) of maintaining this pattern at preschool age. Exclusively breastfed children in the lower ultra processed food pattern had a 10% lower likelihood (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.86 – 0.95) of transitioning to a higher ultra processed food pattern at preschool age. Conclusion: Dietary patterns in Brazilian children showed significant stability from early childhood to school age. Exclusive breastfeeding may protect against transitioning to high ultra-processed food patterns.