Breastfeeding and maternal eating behaviours are associated with child eating behaviours: findings from the ROLO Kids Study

Abstract

Background Child eating behaviours can negatively contribute to the development of childhood obesity. This study investigated associations between breastfeeding habits, maternal eating behaviours and child eating behaviours, in 5-year-old children. Methods Secundigravida women were recruited to the ROLO dietary randomised controlled trial (Dublin, Ireland) and were followed up with their children to 5 years of age. Breastfeeding exposure and duration were obtained at postnatal and infant follow-up at 2 and 6 months and 2 and 5 years. At 5 years, maternal and child eating behaviours were measured using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire and the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, respectively. Regression determined associations between breastfeeding habits and maternal eating behaviours with child eating behaviours, controlling for RCT group, maternal education level, maternal BMI at 5 years, childcare exposure and child BMI centile at 5-year follow-up. Results There were 230 mother and child pairs analysed. One hundred and fifty-eight mothers had initiated breastfeeding. Median breastfeeding duration was 22 (IQR 33) weeks. Children who were never breastfed were more likely to express a desire to drink (B = −1.01, p = 0.022). Longer breastfeeding duration was associated with lower food responsiveness (B = −1.71, p = 0.003). Maternal uncontrolled eating was positively associated with child food responsiveness, emotional overeating and emotional undereating (B = 0.21, p < 0.001; B = 0.14, p = 0.005; B = 0.14, p = 0.005, respectively). Maternal emotional eating was associated with child emotional overeating and undereating (B = 0.27, p < 0.001, B = 0.29, p = 0.004, respectively). Conclusion Not breastfeeding and short breastfeeding duration may contribute to the development of obesogenic eating behaviours in children, alongside maternal eating behaviours including uncontrolled and emotional eating. These ‘food approach’ eating behaviours may increase risk of overweight/obesity as they are associated with increased energy intake, hence the importance of research surrounding eating behaviours.

Early Feeding Factors and Eating Behaviors among Children Aged 1–3: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Moreover, children with a formula pattern scored lower on the slowness in eating subscale in comparison to the longer EBF group. These results, except for enjoyment of food, are consistent with other authors’ findings, suggesting that longer breastfeeding duration may be related to lower desire to drink and higher satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating [ 8 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. Admittedly, Mallan et al [ 54 ] came to a contrary conclusion regarding satiety responsiveness, as in their study, formula-fed infants scored higher on this subscale than breastfed infants.…”

“…Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life is a desirable goal in infants’ nutrition and should be continued as complementary foods are introduced, as long as mutually desired by mother and infant [ 4 , 5 ]. Breastfeeding, besides having many health benefits both for mother and child [ 6 ], may also contribute to establishing food preferences and eating behaviors [ 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”

“…Recent studies have analyzed eating behaviors in the context of early feeding factors; however, results are inconclusive [ 8 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Moreover, previous studies sometimes focused on selected early feeding factors such as breastfeeding [ 24 , 28 ], complementary feeding [ 29 , 30 ] or mealtime habits [ 18 , 31 , 32 ] only.…”

Factors influencing health behaviour change during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-synthesis

“…Encouraging women to adopt healthy behaviours during pregnancy has the potential to reduce the risk of pregnancy-related conditions such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes (Yang et al, 2019), as well as the risk of obstetric complications such as pre-term birth, caesarean birth, miscarriage, and stillbirth (Escañuela Sánchez et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2020;Sundermann et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2019). Furthermore, healthy behaviours developed during pregnancy have the potential to be maintained into the postnatal period and beyond, improving the health of women, as well as their children, who may otherwise emulate poor behaviours (Yelverton et al, 2020;Zarychta et al, 2019) or develop health conditions related to maternal risk factors (Edlow, 2017;Gutvirtz et al, 2019;Heslehurst et al, 2019;Stacy et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Associations between Children’s Genetic Susceptibility to Obesity, Infant’s Appetite and Parental Feeding Practices in Toddlerhood

“…The influence of parents on their child’s eating behavior development starts in the first weeks of life with breastfeeding. Indeed, previous studies suggest that breastfeeding is positively associated with infant’s self-regulation capacities [ 12 ] and is also related to child’s eating behavior [ 16 ] and parental feeding practices [ 17 ]. Other studies suggest that parental feeding practices may differ according to child’s sex and that, for the same parental feeding practice, child’s response may depend on their sex [ 18 , 19 ].…”