The University of California Nutrition Policy Institute is looking for toddlers who drink cow’s milk to participate in a 12-month study.
“The goal of this UC study is to examine how the type of milk toddlers drink affects their health, growth and development,” Kassandra Bacon, a policy analyst for the NPI project, said Thursday.
Researchers are looking at toddlers between the ages of 23 and 30 months. They plan to randomly assign 625 toddlers to drink either whole milk or 1% fat milk starting at age 2.
According to the NPI, the American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that children switch from whole milk to low-fat or skim milk beginning at age 2 to reduce their saturated fat and calorie intake.
“We follow each participant for a year and collect baseline and follow-up data,” said Ryan Williams, a policy analyst for the NPI project and a registered dietitian involved in the study.
Scientists plan to track participants’ body fat, diet, health and developmental outcomes. They will measure each child’s height, weight, waist and head circumference.
They also plan to ask parents to check their child’s blood lipids, cholesterol, insulin resistance and vitamin D, cognitive development and gut microbiome diversity. They will also ask parents about their child’s diet and provide free nutritional advice from a registered dietitian.
Participants can earn up to $275 in gift cards by completing the study. Milk will be provided and delivered free of charge to participants.
Additional eligibility requirements include having health insurance, having a parent over the age of 18 who speaks English, and living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Children who are WIC participants, lactose intolerant, or allergic to milk are not eligible for the study.
Lorrene Ritchie, director of the Nutrition Policy Institute and a registered dietitian, and Anisha Patel, a pediatrician and professor in the Department of General Pediatrics at Stanford University, are the principal investigators of the study.
The Nutrition Policy Institute is part of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
