Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center
Project Number: 3092-10700-068-004-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2024
End Date: Mar 31, 2029
Objective:
Objective 1: Utilize metabolomics to identify biomarkers of dietary intake and, subsequently, to examine the associations of these molecules with cognitive development, in toddlers at ages 18-24 months.
Approach:
The current project aims to address the need for a greater understanding of the role dietary intake plays in supporting cognitive development from 12-24m of age, since this is the earliest time when most children's major nutritional needs are met via non-human/non-formula milk sources. This research need will be addressed in two ways: due to the well-known difficulties of measuring dietary intake in young children, one aspect of the project will leverage existing observational data on over 8,000 US and European children, available from, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study and examine associations between parent-reported dietary intake with metabolome-wide metabolites from ages 12-24m. The goal of these analyses is to identify generalizable biomarkers of dietary intake, useful for wide-ranging future studies into diet-health associations in toddlerhood, including those focusing on neurocognition. Due to the lack of existing data on dietary intake and cognitive development in toddlerhood, a second aspect of the project will establish a new longitudinal cohort of toddlers in Houston. Since we are interested in the effects of diet from 12m on cognitive development, and such effects may take time to accrue to the extent that they are observable in a research setting, children will participate in study visits at 18- and 24m of age. At these ages, the project aims to measure habitual dietary intake over the past six months, quantify metabolome-wide metabolites, and assess cognitive development in up to 150 children. This new cohort will represent the start of a unique, and needed, resource for the scientific community, given our lack of data on diet and cognitive development in toddlers. It will also provide information for epidemiological analyses within the project period, that examine associations between dietary intake from 12-24m of age, and of diet-related metabolites, with cognitive functioning at 18-24m. These related, but independent, project goals represent some of the first attempts to collect information on the associations of diet with cognitive development in toddlerhood – information which could help policymakers develop improved food and nutrition policies and programs. Furthermore, this information will impact multiple key stakeholders, such as the food industry, dietary professionals, health care professionals, and new parents.
