In light of growing health concerns - obesity, heart disease and cancer - governments are increasingly turning to diet as a possible solution to relieve the burgeoning figures. Scientists hope the findings will help to draw up national dietary guidelines.
With funding of £340,000 from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK have embarked on a four-year investigation into how diet in the first year of life influences growth and development.
Led by Dr Sian Robinson of the Medical Research Council Environmental Epidemiology Unit at the University, the study will draw on information from the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS).
Since 1998 information about diet and lifestyle has been collected from 12,500 women in the SWS. By the end of 2003, almost 2,000 of these women had had babies.
Researchers are measuring the growth of these babies when they reach 6 and 12 months old, together with details of the milk and solid foods that they have consumed.
"This will provide information on contemporary infant feeding practice and dietary patterns that is not available anywhere else in the UK," said the scientists in a statement this week.
Some of the SWS children will also be followed up at the age of four to examine their growth, the strength of their bones and other aspects of development, and to see how these are affected by diet in infancy.
"We know that diet in the first few months of life is very important,"said Dr Robinson."We can now analyse what babies are eating in a very large population of children and look at how this affects growth and development. This will help us to draw up some guidelines to best practice."
The SWS team aims to continue its work by studying the diet of older children as the youngsters recruited through the SWS grow older. "This may unlock some of the secrets of the link between early life and later health," they conclude.