Meeting Micronutrient Needs of Children Aged Six Months to Five Years

Ensuring nutritional adequacy and developing positive dietary behaviors during early childhood is critical for establishing lifelong healthy habits (Hasnin, Dev, & Tovar, 2020). Children aged six months to five years rely exclusively on their caregivers for their dietary needs and food environment. Micronutrient needs for children aged six months to five years greatly vary as children grow rapidly during this stage of life. Children begin learning self-feeding by the age of one and establish meal patterns (Mahmood, Flores-Barrantes, Moreno, Manios, & Gonzalez-Gil, 2021). Primary sources of energy and micronutrients dramatically shift from milk at one to two years to solid foods at three to six years (Bailey, Fulgoni, Shah, Patterson, Gutierrez-Orozco, Mathews, & Walsh, 2021). These shifts can lead to micronutrient deficiencies and indicate that children of this age range are particularly vulnerable (Bailey et al., 2021). This review sets out to answer the following question: What are the best practices to ensure children aged six months to five years meet adequate micronutrient intake? A search of the literature was conducted highlighting the following themes: micronutrient recommendations and deficiencies, food environment factors and challenges, and best practices for the delivery of foods. Included in this literature review are 12 peer-reviewed articles which were selected from a group of 15 peer-reviewed articles. Two literature reviews, one systematic review, four observational peer-reviewed articles, two quantitative peer-reviewed articles, one interview-driven peer-reviewed article, and two survey/questionnaire-driven peer-reviewed articles were included in the review. The period of time covered in this review ranges from 2001 to 2020. General conclusions include a link between low introduction of isolated fruits and vegetables in older infancy to low vegetable consumption and higher intakes of sweet beverages in toddlers and children, the failure of child-care facilities to ensure children meet nutrient recommendations (even if they meet CACFP requirements), a need for specific food introduction protocol at child-care facilities, and a need for parental support resources in healthy food behavior modeling.