Infant temperament and parent use of food to soothe predict change in weight-for-length across infancy: early risk factors for childhood obesity

Abstract

ObjectivesGreater weight gain in infancy is a risk factor for childhood obesity. The present study examined the interaction between infant temperament and parent use of food to soothe infant distress (FTS) as predictors of weight gain across the first 2 years of life.Subjects/Methods160 mother-infant dyads were recruited into a longitudinal study. Infant temperament was assessed by parents through a questionnaire (surgency, negativity) and by observer ratings (surgency, irritability) during a laboratory visit when infants were 6 months. Parents also completed a 3-day infant cry diary when their children were 6 months of age to assess when they used food in response to infant cry/fuss bouts. Infant weight/length was measured in the lab at 6 and 18 months. Multiple regressions were run to test the moderating effect of FTS on weight gain.ResultsSignificant interactions were revealed for both measures of surgency and parent FTS in predicting weight gain. Surgent infants whose parents had a greater tendency to use FTS had greater weight-for-length gain in one year than if their parents tended to use less FTS. The interaction between observer ratings of irritability and parent FTS was also significant but in an unexpected direction.ConclusionsThe findings point to the role of temperament, specifically surgency, in weight gain during infancy, but only if their parents used FTS. Surgency may have evoked this feeding practice that increased their health risk.

Effect of Lifestyle Interventions in Obese Pregnant Women on the Neurocognitive Development and Anthropometrics of Preschool Children

“…More specifically, extraversion has been positively associated with overweight, possibly mediated by enjoyment of food and overeating habits in response to external cues [27,28]. Importantly, a recent study suggested that surgent infants only predicted increased weight gain during infancy when parents used food to soothe infant distress [29].…”

Effect of a responsive parenting intervention on child emotional overeating is mediated by reduced maternal use of food to soothe: The INSIGHT RCT

“…We hypothesize that mothers receiving the RP intervention will report lower child emotional overeating than the control group, and that this effect is mediated by mothers' use of food to soothe. Based on previous data that infant negativity impacts mothers' use of food to soothe, 21 an exploratory aim of this study was to examine whether this process varied by infant negative affect.…”

Home-based intervention for non-Hispanic black families finds no significant difference in infant size or growth: results from the Mothers & Others randomized controlled trial

“…Behavioral determinants associated with large infant size and rapid growth include short durations of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) or any breastfeeding (BF) [7], introduction of complementary foods (CF) before 4 months [8,9], short sleep duration [10,11], early emergence of potentially obesogenic diets [12][13][14][15], and high levels of screentime [16][17][18]. Importantly, there is growing evidence on modifiable factors associated with early life feeding and care behaviors, including infant feeding attitudes, intentions, self-efficacy, and social support [19][20][21][22][23][24], as well as parental feeding styles [25,26] and appropriate interpretation of infant fussiness [27][28][29].…”