Effectiveness of a Dietary Counseling to Prevent Early Consumption of Added Sugar and Ultra-processed Foods

Effectiveness of a Dietary Counseling to Prevent Added Sugar and Ultra-processed Foods During the First Year of Life: a Randomized Field Trial

The purpose of the study is to prevent the early introduction of added sugar and ultra-processed foods and evaluate the impact on breastfeeding duration, complementary feeding quality, growth and prevalence of caries during the first year of life.

This randomized field trial will be performed at the maternity wards of Friendly Hospitals Initiative in three regions of Brazil: North, Northeast and South. After delivery, mothers who accepted to participate in the study will be randomized into control and intervention groups.It will be performed a weekly block randomization to prevent the contamination of information among mothers of different groups in the same facility. The intervention mothers will be advised not to give added sugar and ultra-processed foods during the first year of life, including a leaflet with colored images as a reminder for mothers. The control group mothers will not receive the study intervention but will be have all the routine health assistance of the maternity. At 6 months and 12 months, mothers of both groups will be visited in their homes and dietary evaluation and anthropometric measurements of their babies will be assessed. At 12 months of age the infants will have dental examinations and hemoglobin concentration through a capillary blood test.

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Inclusion Criteria:

• Newborns with gestational age ≥ 37 weeks
• single birth
• Mother with at least 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Mothers with HIV or HTLV1 positive
• Infants with clinical occurrences or other conditions that prohibit breastfeeding or requires specific dietary treatment.