The Project Viva Study

Original Study

Switkowski KM, Aris IM, Gingras V, Oken E, Young JG, et al. Estimated causal effects of complementary feeding behaviors on early childhood diet quality in a US cohort. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2022;115(4):1105–1114.

Read the original Project Viva study

What Is Project Viva?

Project Viva is a long-term study of mothers and children in the Boston area. For this analysis, researchers used information from 1,041 children to examine whether certain feeding practices during infancy were related to diet quality when the children were about three years old.

Three Feeding Practices

The researchers looked at three feeding practices that can overlap. A parent could use one, two, or all three:

1. Waiting until at least 12 months to introduce sweets and fruit juice.

2. Continuing to offer foods that a baby initially refused.

3. Introducing a variety of flavors and textures before 12 months.

What the Researchers Found

Children exposed to these feeding practices tended to have better-quality diets in early childhood. The researchers found that delaying sweets and fruit juice, continuing to offer initially refused foods, and introducing a variety of flavors and textures early may all help support healthier eating patterns later.

This was an observational cohort study rather than a randomized controlled trial, so it cannot prove cause and effect as strongly as a randomized trial can. However, the researchers used statistical methods designed to account for many differences between families.

Why This Matters

The study supports an important idea in infant feeding: babies learn to like foods through experience. Repeated exposure to nutritious foods and early experience with a variety of tastes and textures may help shape healthier food preferences as children grow.