The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) 2016: Moving Forward

Key FindingsInfants: breastfeeding, breast milk substitutes, and introduction of complementary foods Roess et al. (10) found that the initiation and duration of breastfeeding appear to be increasing in the total population over the 3 FITS surveys (11), and with FITS 2016, the percentage of mothers initiating breastfeeding and the percentage continuing to breastfeed at 12 mo both met goals set by Healthy People 2020 (12).However, the prevalence and duration of exclusive breastfeeding still fell short of the Healthy People 2020 goals.Guthrie et al. (13) found that infants participating in WIC were less likely to be put to the breast at all, and if they were, were breastfed for a shorter time than non-WIC participants.Breast milk substitutes were mostly appropriate (i.e., ironfortified infant formulas), and older infants typically transitioned from formula to cow milk around 12 mo, in accordance with pediatric feeding guidelines that recommend delaying the introduction of cow milk until 12 mo (14, 15).The prevalence of early introduction of cow milk has stayed roughly the same since 2008: use of cow milk rather than formula in early and middle infancy (0-8.9 mo of age) was rare (10).Complementary feeding is an area of active research and discussion (16).The prevalence of introducing solids <4 mo of age continued to decline (10), compared with FITS 2008 (11), confirming NHANES data that also suggest a lower prevalence of complementary feeding in very young infants than previously reported (8).However, infants consuming any formula were