We are proposing to extract dietary patterns using prinicipal components analysis from the FFQ data collected when the children were two years of age. The proposed work will build on the work already publised throughout childhood from 3 to 9 years of age (1-3) and the dietary pattern scores obtained can be used as a predictor for many other outcomes.

Two years of age is a crucial time for developing dietary habits. Weaning will have been achieved and it is a period when more adult type foods are being introduced and children begin to develop their own preferences. Several studies have shown that diet in the early years is important for later behavious. It can be a challenging time for parents and carers and we therefore propose to examine the associations between the dietary patterns obtained and current feeding difficulties and behaviours as reported by the main carer.

To our knowledge only one other study has examined dietary patterns in such a young age - Robinson et al examined infant dietary patterns at 6 and 12 months of age (4). It is therefore important to try to fill the gap in the knowledge for this age group.