The VFR pattern is associated with a lower incidence of preterm birth and with larger birth size in an Asian population. The findings related to larger birth size warrant further confirmation in independent studies. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01174875.

BackgroundAppetitive traits in childhood such as food responsiveness and enjoyment of food have been associated with body mass index (BMI) in later childhood. However, data on appetitive traits during infancy in relation to BMI in later childhood are sparse. We aimed to relate appetitive traits in infancy to subsequent BMI and weight gain up to 24 months of age.MethodsData of 210 infants from the Singapore GUSTO mother-offspring cohort was obtained. The Baby Eating Behavior Questionnaire (BEBQ) and the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) were administered to mothers when their offspring were aged 3 and 12 months respectively. Height and weight of offspring were measured at ages 3, 6, 9,12,15,18 and 24 months. The association of appetitive traits with both BMI z-score and weight gain were evaluated using multivariate linear regression.ResultsFood responsiveness at 3 months was associated with higher BMI from 6 months up to 15 months of age (p < 0.01) and with greater weight gain between 3 and 6 months of age (p = 0.012). Slowness in eating and satiety responsiveness at 3 months was significantly associated with lower BMI at 6 months (p < 0.01) and with less weight gain between 3 to 6 months of age (p = 0.034). None of the appetitive traits at 12 months were significantly associated with BMI or weight gain over any time period.ConclusionEarly assessment of appetitive traits at 3 months of age but not at 12 months of age was associated with BMI and weight gain over the first two years of life.Trial registrationClinical Trials identifier NCT01174875Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12887-015-0467-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) was developed to measure eating behaviors related to obesity risk in children. However, this questionnaire has not been validated for use in South East Asia, where parenting practices are different from those in western countries and child obesity rates are increasing. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the CEBQ administered to mothers of children aged 3 years in Singapore. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine if the original 35-item, 8-factor model was supported in our cohort. Participants were 636 mother-child dyads (mean (SD) child age=36.7 (1.6) months), from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort in which the mothers Request for reprints will be available from the author.Conflict of interest P.D.G., K.M.G., and Y.S.C. have received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products. These authors are part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbot Nutrition, Nestec, and Danone. None of the other authors report any potential conflict of interest. Authors ContibutionsAll authors were involved in all parts of the study and approved the final manuscript. The contributions are listed below. SMS, KMG, FY and YSC designed and led the GUSTO study. PLQ contributed to the statistical analysis and writing of the manuscript. CYB provided intellectual contribution to the write-up of the manuscript and advice on the statistical analysis. PLQ and MFFC were responsible for finalizing the manuscript. Europe PMC Funders Group Europe PMC Funders Author ManuscriptsEurope PMC Funders Author Manuscripts were characterized in pregnancy and children were followed up to age 3 years. The CFA showed a poor model fit; RMSEA=0.072 (PCLOSE<0.001), SRMR=0.094, CFI=0.826, and TLI=0.805. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 35 item, 7-factor structure (factor loadings ≥ 0.35): enjoyment of food, food fussiness, emotional overeating, desire to drink, emotional under eating, satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating. Cronbach's alpha estimates ranged from 0.70-0.88 for the 7 subscales. Convergent validity tests via correlation analysis revealed that emotional under eating (r=-0.14), slowness in eating (r=-0.16) and satiety responsiveness (r=-0.11) were negatively correlated with BMI z-score at 3 years, while enjoyment of food (r=0.12) was positively correlated, p<0.05. In conclusion, we found a revised 7-factor structure of the CEBQ more appropriate for examining eating behavior in 3 year old children in the Singapore setting. Further replication studies in a separate cohort study are warranted before further use of these factor structures generated.