Stability, Continuity, and Bi-Directional Associations of Parental Feeding Practices and Standardized Child Body Mass Index in Children from 2 to 12 Years of Age

Abstract

(1) Background: Parental feeding practices are related to child body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and seem to be a consequence rather than cause of child BMI, but research so far is limited. Stability and continuity of feeding practices, probably explaining changes in food intake and child BMI, remain to be poorly examined. (2) Methods: Feeding practices (i.e., restriction, food as reward, pressure to eat, monitoring) assessed via the Child Feeding Questionnaire, child age, standardized BMI (zBMI), and socio-economic status were measured annually at multiple visits (range 2–8) in a population-based longitudinal cohort study of 1512 parents with their children aged 2 to 12 years. Stability, continuity, and bi-directionality of feeding practices and child zBMI were calculated using correlation coefficients, paired t tests, and cross-lagged panels, respectively. (3) Results: Feeding practices and child zBMI showed moderate to high stability. While continuity was high for restriction, minor temporal changes were observed for other feeding practices and child zBMI. Cross-lags indicated that child zBMI predicted restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring, while food-rewarding predicted child zBMI only minorly. (4) Conclusions: Parents seem to adapt feeding practices to child zBMI with the exception of food-rewarding.

The Association between Body Mass Index and Physical Fitness of Normal Weight/Overweight/Obese University Students

“…In the auto-regression of BMI, flexibility, muscular endurance, and explosive power, only BMI and muscular endurance were significant and equivalent between the sexes. This result implied that carry-over effects of BMI and muscular endurance existed (a carry-over effect existed between BMI and muscular endurance) and accorded with that of Eichler et al [ 38 ]. Eichler et al applied a long-term cross lagged panel model to examine the stability of BMI, and the results suggested that BMI between z-scores exhibited high stability.…”

Interaction Effects of Child Weight Status and Parental Feeding Practices on Children’s Eating Disorder Symptomatology

“…Though the exact mechanisms of action are unclear, it might be hypothesized that parental restrictive feeding practices in children with higher weight status make them more sensitive to their weight problems and intensify weight control behaviors and dietary restraint [24], thus initiating the vicious circle of LOC eating, at least in a vulnerable proportion of children [36]. Alternatively, since it is assumed that parents adapt their feeding strategies more strongly to deviations in child weight status early in life than vice versa [7,8], a higher child weight status may provoke maternal use of restrictive feeding, with the combination of both conditions increasing children’s disordered eating. Complex bidirectional associations between parental restriction, child weight status, and eating disorder psychopathology are thus to be expected.…”

“…Both restriction and pressure to eat were evidenced to be reliable correlates of higher and lower child weight status, respectively, while parental monitoring of children’s eating behavior was not related to child weight status in most previous studies [1,6]. Although there is still ambiguity about the direction of the causal pathway between parental feeding practices and child weight status, recent evidence pointed to a child-effect model, with parents adapting their feeding practices to child weight status [1,7,8].…”

Childhood Eating and Feeding Disturbances

“…Parental feeding practices, for example, restrictive feeding, have been assumed to undermine children's weight self-regulation. In a large longitudinal cohort of 2-12-year-old children, Eichler et al [20] evaluated bidirectional associations between parental feeding practices and standardized body mass index (zBMI) at one-year intervals. Child zBMI predicted restrictive feeding practices, pressure to eat, and monitoring of the child's food intake at multiple ages, while using food as a reward predicted child zBMI only from 4 to 5 years of age.…”