Early nutrition and its effect on growth, body composition and later obesity

Adequate nutrition during the first year of life is essential to provide a healthy growth pattern, both in the short and long term. The literature in this field has increased considerably since we wrote our first chapter on this topic for the Yearbook 2016. There has been an increasing interest in nutrition during the first 1,000 days and how it can have programming effects. We have not included papers on nutrition during pregnancy but have focused on the first two years of life. In high-income countries, the majority of papers focus on the healthy growth pattern and how it might  prevent later overweight and obesity. However, there is an increasing number of studies from low- and middle-income countries focusing on how early nutrition can prevent undernutrition. We have also included a few studies on this topic.Among the many papers published between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, we have chosen 9 papers which we found interesting. Some because they were of outstanding quality and some because they added interesting and important new aspects to a relevant area. The areas we have covered incluse: (1) Human Milk Composition and Growth (3 papers), (2) Breastfeeding duration and Growth (3 papers), (3) Protein Content of Infant Formula and Growth (1 paper), and (4) Animal Source Food and Early Growth (2 papers).