Environmental Rather than Genetic Factors Determine the Variation in the Age of the Infancy to Childhood Transition: A Twins Study

German, Alina; Livshits, Gregory; Peter, Inga; Malkin, Ida; Dubnov, Jonathan; Akons, Hannah; Shmoish, Michael; Hochberg, Zèev

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.11.047

Cited by 9 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Karlberg’s ICP (infancy-childhood-puberty) height growth model ( 24 ) proposes such a transition from infant to childhood growth toward the end of the first year, which is visible as a small but consistent change in length velocity (i.e., centile crossing) ( 25 , 26 ). So it is plausible that the large negative correlation followed by zero correlation reflects the ICP infant-childhood transition, albeit for weight rather than height.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weight centile crossing in infancy: correlations between successive months show evidence of growth feedback and an infant-child growth transition

Cole

Singhal

Fewtrell

et al. 2016

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

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Background: Early rapid weight gain is associated with later overweight, which implies that weight centile crossing tracks over time.Objective: Centile crossing is defined in terms of the change or deviation in weight z score during 1 mo, and the correlations between successive deviations are explored at different ages.Design: Two Cambridge (United Kingdom) growth cohorts were used: Widdowson (1094 infants born during 1959–1965) and the Cambridge Infant Growth Study (CIGS; 255 infants born during 1984–1987), each with weights measured monthly in the first year. Weights were converted to WHO age- and sex-adjusted z scores, deviations were calculated as the change in z score between adjacent measurement occasions, and the correlations between deviations were studied.Results: In both cohorts, the correlations between successive monthly deviations were positive in the first 6 mo and highest at ages 3–4 mo (r = 0.3, P < 0.0001), whereas after 6 mo they were negative and were lowest at ages 10–11 mo (r = –0.3, P < 0.0001), with the correlation decreasing linearly with age between these extremes. Thus, during the first 6 mo of age, infants crossing centiles in 1 mo tended to continue crossing centiles in the same direction the following month, whereas after 6 mo they tended to cross back again. This represents positive and negative feedback, respectively. At age 12 mo, the correlation was close to zero, which suggests an infant-child transition in growth.Conclusions: The results confirm that weight centile crossing tracks over time, with the correlations between successive periods that change with age suggesting a complex feedback mechanism underlying infant growth. This may throw light on the link between early rapid weight gain and later overweight. Clinically, the correlations indicate that when predicting future weight from current weight, recent centile crossing affects the prediction in an age-dependent manner.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weight centile crossing in infancy: correlations between successive months show evidence of growth feedback and an infant-child growth transition

Cole

Singhal

Fewtrell

et al. 2016

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

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“…Numerous publications have addressed the timing of puberty and its relationship to adult height (2,3), weight (4,5), BMI (1,6,7) and the adiposity rebound (8). The number of published reports on the association between timing and tempo of puberty in girls, which is the topic of this report, is small.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Outcomes of pubertal development in girls as a function of pubertal onset age

German

Shmoish

Belsky

et al. 2018

European Journal of Endocrinology

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“…The mechanism for the establishment of taller stature is an earlier ICT [11,19]. Thus, the average age for ICT is 9 months in Sweden [11], 10 months in Israel [20], 11 months in Shanghai, China [21], and 13 months in Lahore, Pakistan [22] (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Infancy-childhood Transition In Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncoupling of the Infancy Life History Stage

Hochberg¹

2021

Horm Res Paediatr

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Background: The life history of Homo sapiens is unique in having a comparatively short stage of infancy which lasts for 2–3 years. Infancy is characterized by suckling of breast milk, the development of sensorimotor cognition, the acquisition of language, mini-puberty, deciduous dentition, and almost complete skull growth. Infancy ends with the infancy-childhood growth transition (ICT) and separation from the mother. In modern-day affluent societies, breastfeeding depends on the mother’s decision and may happen at any age, and the characteristic traits of infancy have uncoupled. The data and theory for this contention are presented. Summary: The biological traits of mini-puberty and ICT characteristic of infancy occur before age 1 along with language acquisition. The cognitive (sensorimotor) component occurs by age 2, and the social component of separation from the mother by any age from 1 to 3 years. Key Messages: Human life history is based on a coherent stage of infancy which assumes coupling between the biological, cognitive, and social maturation of a baby. This is no longer the case in industrial societies and might never be so again. The upbringing of an infant needs to consider the new biology of this dissociated infancy and a new timetable of the infant’s life-history events.

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Environmental Rather than Genetic Factors Determine the Variation in the Age of the Infancy to Childhood Transition: A Twins Study

Cited by 9 publications

References 19 publications

Weight centile crossing in infancy: correlations between successive months show evidence of growth feedback and an infant-child growth transition

Weight centile crossing in infancy: correlations between successive months show evidence of growth feedback and an infant-child growth transition

Outcomes of pubertal development in girls as a function of pubertal onset age

Uncoupling of the Infancy Life History Stage

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