Background: In China, as the social transformation and economic development from 1985 to 2015, children’s feeding pattern has undergone some changes. So we aimed to analyze the secular trend on feeding patterns of city children in China.

Methods: All data were from a series of national survey which implemented once every 10 years in China from 1985 to 2015. We use same indexes to evaluate the feeding pattern of children in these four surveys.

Results: From 1985 to 2005, the exclusive breastfeeding rates in infants under 6 months of age decreased, especially in suburban areas decreased by 17.7%; the continuous breastfeeding rate of 1-year-old children in suburban area decreased from 60.1 to 27.6%. However, from 2005 to 2015, the exclusive breastfeeding rates under 6 months of age increased by 16.0% in urban areas and 5.9% in suburban areas; the continuous breastfeeding rate of 1-year-old children in urban increased from 17.0 to 36.0%. The overall feeding rate of complementary food in infants under 6 months of age declined from 1985 to 2015; the average age at introduction of all complementary foods was around 6 months of age in 2015.