The Infant Diet Quality Index is a new promising tool to measure diet and BMI among young children

The first years of life present an optimal window to establish healthy eating behaviors and support childhood development. However, there are limited measurement tools to assess diet quality during infancy. Researchers at UC Davis and the Nutrition Policy Institute, created a novel Infant Diet Quality Index (IDQI) to assess diet quality using data on 2,858 infants from birth up to 12 months old from the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study. The IDQI consists of 16 components related to infant feeding, including, but not limited to: breastfeeding, age of first introduction of solids, and frequency of consuming fruit and vegetables. IDQI scores were predictive of diet quality and weight outcomes in U.S. children 2-4 years of age of low-income.The study published in The Journal of Nutrition, was authored by Dr. Lauren Au and Charles Arnold of the University of California, Davis, Department of Nutrition, Dr. Lorrene Ritchie of the Nutrition Policy Institute, and Dr. Edward Frongillo from the University of South Carolina, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior. Research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R03HL154986 and the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project #CA-D-NTR-2689-H.