Feeding Homemade Sugar Sweetened Beverages in Addition to Breastfeeding: Survey Results from Caregivers of Infants and Young Children in Peri-Urban Lima, Peru

Objectives Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) is associated with childhood obesity and other negative health conditions. Feeding SSB to infants and young children (IYC) under 2 years may displace consumption of breastmilk and nutrient rich foods critical for optimal growth and development. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends avoiding added sugar (e.g. SSB) for IYC under 2 years. We sought to describe the variety of homemade and commercial SSB as well as breastmilk and beverages without added sugar fed to IYC aged 4–23 months living in a low-income, populous peri-urban area of Lima, Peru. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 181 households with IYC aged 4–23 months. A list of common local homemade and commercial beverages was used to investigate what caregivers had fed to the child in the past 24 h. Results A total of 93.9% of caregivers reported feeding at least one beverage to their child other than breastmilk in the past 24 h. This included a variety of homemade SSB (73.5%), commercial SSB (18.2%) and homemade beverages without added sugar (70.2%). A high percentage (83.4%) of children were also breastfed. Conclusions for Practice Our findings suggest that interventions to address feeding homemade SSB to IYC within households are needed to support WHO recommendations and complement current commercial SSB policy regulations in Peru.