Feeding practices and child weight: is the association bidirectional in preschool children?1234

https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.088922Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

ABSTRACT

Background:

Parental feeding practices are associated with children’s body mass index (BMI). It has been generally assumed that parental feeding determines children’s eating behaviors and weight gain, but feeding practices could equally be a parent’s response to child weight.

Objective:

In longitudinal analyses, we assessed the directionality in the relation between selected controlling feeding practices and BMI in early childhood.

Design:

Participants were 4166 children from the population-based Generation R Study. BMI was measured at ages 2 and 6 y. With the use of the Child Feeding Questionnaire, parents reported on restriction, monitoring, and pressure to eat (child age: 4 y). BMI and feeding-behavior scales were transformed to SD scores.

Results:

With the use of linear regression analyses, there was an indication that a higher BMI at age 2 y predicted higher levels of parental restriction (adjusted β = 0.07; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.10) and lower levels of pressure to eat (adjusted β = −0.20; 95% CI: −0.23, −0.17) 2 y later. Restriction at age 4 y positively predicted child BMI at 6 y of age, although this association attenuated to statistical nonsignificance after accounting for BMI at age 4 y (β = 0.01; 95% CI: −0.01, 0.03). Pressure to eat predicted lower BMI independently of BMI at age 4 y (β = −0.02; 95% CI: −0.04, −0.01). For both restriction and pressure to eat, the relation from BMI to parenting was stronger than the reverse (Wald’s test for comparison: P = 0.03 and < 0.001, respectively). Monitoring predicted a lower child BMI, but this relation was explained by confounding factors.

Conclusions:

Although the feeding-BMI relation is bidirectional, the main direction of observed effects suggests that parents tend to adapt their controlling feeding practices in response to their child’s BMI rather than the reverse. Therefore, some components of current programs aimed at preventing or treating unhealthy child weight may need to be carefully scrutinized, especially those targeting parental food-related restriction and pressure to eat.

Cited by (0)

1

From the Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology (PWJ, JvdE, FCV, and HT) and Pediatrics (VWVJ), Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC)-Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands; The Generation R Study Group (PWJ, AT, and VWVJ) and Departments of Epidemiology (AT, AH, VWVJ, and HT), Public Health (HR), and Psychiatry (HT), Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Institute of Psychology (PWJ) and School of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences (MHvI), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia (MW); the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (MW); and the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia (MW).

2

None of the funding entities were involved in the design of the study or analysis and interpretation of data.

3

Supported by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW) (ZonMW “Geestkracht” program; grant 10.000.1003), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW) (NWO–ZonMW, VIDI grant 017.106.370; to HT), the Sophia Foundation for Medical Research SSWO (grant 602; to PWJ), and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship (1046518; to MW). The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute is supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program.

4

Address reprint requests and correspondence to PW Jansen, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia, PO Box 2060, 3000 CB Rotterdam, Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected].