TOPLINE

Children who consumed larger food portions during complementary feeding were more likely to become overweight later, with greater food portions at 6 months more than doubling the odds of overweight at the age of 2 years and the portion size at the age of 8 years showing the strongest association with overweight through 11 years.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a secondary longitudinal analysis of a randomised clinical trial (testing the protein content of infant formulas) to evaluate the association of food portion sizes during the complementary feeding (6-24 months of age) with the risk for overweight later in childhood.
• A total of 1679 apparently healthy singleton infants born at term (median age, 14 days) between October 2002 and July 2004 were enrolled within the first 8 weeks of life.
• Infants were randomly assigned to receive non-hydrolysed cow's formula milk with either a low protein content (1.8 g/100 kcal infant formula and 2.9 g/100 kcal follow-on formula) or a higher protein content (2.2 g/100 kcal infant formula and 4.4 g/100 kcal follow-on formula) during the first year of life; a reference group of infants who were breastfed was also included.
• Dietary intake was assessed at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months using 3-day food records, and the average portion sizes (in grams) were calculated from the amount consumed at each eating occasion during the complementary feeding.
• Outcome measures were anthropometric assessments conducted at ages of 2, 8, and 11 years, with overweight status defined according to World Health Organization growth standards.

TAKEAWAY

• Infants who consumed larger food portions at 6 months had more than twofold higher odds of being overweight at 2 years, independent of the portion size at 24 months (odds ratio [OR], 2.36; P = .031).
• Across all ages assessed, food portion sizes at 8 years were significantly associated with higher odds of overweight at 8 years (OR, 2.38-4.08; P < .05 for all), with similar associations observed at 11 years.
• Larger food portion sizes were associated with higher energy intake, whereas more frequent eating occasions were associated with smaller food portion sizes (P < .001 for both).
• Children who consumed larger food portions at 12 and 18 months were more likely to continue eating larger portions later in childhood, which contributed to a higher risk of being overweight at 8 and 11 years.

IN PRACTICE

"Our findings suggest that the portion size of complementary feeding during the first 2 years of life might be important for childhood obesity prevention," the authors wrote.

SOURCE

This study was led by Irene Hernandez-Perez, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain. It was published online on July 06, 2026, in Pediatric Obesity.

LIMITATIONS

Dietary intake was based on self-reported 3-day food records, which may have introduced reporting bias. The observational design precluded causal inference. Sociodemographic differences between participants retained in the study and those lost to follow-up may have introduced selection bias.

DISCLOSURES

The study received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the ERA-NET Cofund, Instituto de Salud Carlos III and NextGenerationEU, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, and others. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.