Work

Learning to overeat in infancy: Concurrent and prospective relationships between maternal BMI , feeding practices and child eating response among Hispanic mothers and children

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Parents play a key role in shaping children's eating behaviours and self-regulation. There is limited data on how maternal weight influences feeding practices in the first year of life. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationships between maternal BMI, feeding practices and infant eating behaviours related to self-regulation. METHODS: Participants were 160 mother-infant dyads. A longitudinal design was used to examine concurrent and prospective associations between maternal 6-month postpartum BMI, mothers' feeding practices at 6 months (Infant Feeding Practices Questionnaire) and children's eating behaviours at 6 months (Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) and 12 months (Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire). RESULTS: Higher maternal BMI was associated positively with mothers' use of restrictive feeding practices (β = 0.036, p = 0.033), and inversely with responsivity to infant satiety cues (Spearman partial r = -0.249, p = 0.002) at 6 months. Mother's restrictive feeding practices were associated with infant food responsiveness (β = 0.157, p = 0.009) and emotional overeating (β = 0.118, p = 0.005) at 12 months. Maternal use of responsive feeding practices was associated with lower infant food responsiveness at 6 months (Spearman partial r = -0.173, p = 0.031) and lower emotional overeating at 12 months (Spearman partial r = -0.183, p = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings add to studies suggesting that feeding practices can provide mechanistic pathways in the intergenerational transmission of obesity. Postpartum family-system approaches focusing on maternal health while integrating infant feeding guidance may confer benefits in improving maternal-child health.

Source: Pediatric Obesity

DOI: 10.1111/ijpo.12756

Authors: Camille R. Schneider‐Worthington, Paige K. Berger, Michael I. Goran, Sarah‐Jeanne Salvy

Institutions: University of Alabama at Birmingham, UAB Medicine, University of Southern California, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Language: English

Topic: Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Zero hunger

Open Access status: green

Funders: Gerber Foundation, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development