Consultation outcome

Consultation invitation: draft report on feeding young children aged 1 to 5 years

Updated 4 July 2023

Consultation period

This consultation is open from 20 July to 16 September 2022.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) consultation on its draft report, Feeding young children aged 1 to 5 years, is open for scientific comment.

You are invited to submit comments relating to the scientific content of the draft report. You are also invited to draw the committee’s attention to any evidence that it may have missed.

Review inclusion criteria

You should ensure that any evidence you bring to SACN’s attention meets the SACN Framework for Evaluation of Evidence. The key inclusion criteria for the draft report were:

• systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomised studies on interventions (NRSI) and prospective cohort studies (PCS) examining the relationship between the diet of young children and later health outcomes
• English language publications, conducted in populations in health and directly relevant to the UK, and published in peer-reviewed scientific or medical journals from January 1990
• evidence from studies conducted in high-income countries (HIC). Evidence from studies conducted in low and middle-income countries (LIC and MIC) (using the World Bank classification) that was potentially relevant to the UK context was also considered

Contributions and comments are welcome on any systematic reviews published after 22 May 2019. Post-consultation, any eligible systematic reviews published after 22 May 2019 will be considered. These will only be included in the final report if they change existing conclusions or add to existing work.

For full details of the remit of the work, see chapter 1 of the draft report. For full details of the review inclusion criteria see chapter 2 of the draft report.

Submission of scientific comment and evidence

Any scientific comments or evidence for consideration by SACN should be emailed to the SACN secretariat at sacn@dhsc.gov.uk by 5pm on 16 September 2022. Issues of risk management are outside the SACN’s remit and will not be considered as part of this consultation.

When submitting:

• submit responses using the attached response form (do not PDF the form)
• do not amend the formatting of the form
• do not embed attachments into the response form
• list any references in full that you wish the committee to consider (and that meet the inclusion criteria)

All responses will be published following the conclusion of the consultation.

Background

1. The purpose of the draft report is to review the scientific basis of current recommendations for feeding children aged 1 to 5 years

This draft report is the second part of SACN’s review of the scientific basis of recommendations for feeding young children under 5 years, the first part of which considered feeding in the first year of life (2018). The last major review of young child feeding in the UK was in 1994.

2. The draft report is restricted to risk assessment and only evidence in young children in health has been considered

The draft report considers evidence identified on:

• young child energy, macronutrient and micronutrient requirements
• eating and feeding behaviours
• dietary patterns and consumption of individual foods
• weight status
• oral health
• risks of chemical toxicity arising from the young child diet

3. Key dietary factors considered in this draft report

These are:

• energy requirements
• macronutrients
• micronutrients (focus on vitamins A and D,^{[footnote 1]} iron and zinc)
• dietary patterns (including consideration of vegetarian and vegan diets, and consumption of different food groups)
• chemical contaminants (or the risk of chemical toxicity)
• the latest available nutritional intakes and status of children aged 1 to 5 years (12 to 60 months) in the UK

4. The health outcomes considered in this draft report are divided into those relating to childhood health and those relating to future health

Childhood health outcomes are:

• growth and body composition:
  • linear growth
  • body composition (lean mass, adiposity, body mass index)
  • underweight or overweight or obesity
• neurological outcomes, including cognitive outcomes
• bone or skeletal health outcomes
• oral health
• development of eating habits and feeding behaviours
• morbidities (including respiratory diseases)

Future health outcomes are:

• obesity or body composition
• cancer
• cardiovascular outcomes (coronary heart disease, diabetes)

5. SACN considers evidence for the general population and does not make recommendations related to clinical assessment or management of children with clinical conditions requiring specialist care

1. For vitamin D, it was agreed that only data published since the SACN report Vitamin D and health (2016) cut-off date for inclusion of evidence would be included. ↩