Infant temperament and eating style predict change in standardized weight status and obesity risk at 6 years of age

Abstract

Objective: Little research has addressed the relationships among infant temperament, eating styles and obesity risk. To address this gap, we tested whether infant temperament and eating patterns at the age of 1 year are associated with a greater increase in standardized weight status, and greater obesity risk at 6 years of age. Design: A secondary, prospective analysis of the Colorado Adoption Study was conducted. The main predictor variables were infant temperament (that is, emotionality, activity, attention span-persistence, reaction to food and soothability) and eating domains (that is, reactivity to food, predictable appetite and distractability at mealtime) at the age of 1 year, along with the body mass index (BMI) of biological mothers. The outcome measures were child weight and height (length) assessed at ages 1 through 6 years, from which weight-for-length and BMI were computed along with the standardized indexes (z-scores) and percentiles. Overweight/obesity status was computed at each year as well. Participants: A primarily White sample of 262 boys and 225 girls, assessed at ages 1 through 6 years, along with their mothers. Results: Among boys, greater attention span-persistence was associated with reduced standardized weight status gain (b ¼ À0.15, Po0.05) and reduced obesity risk (odds ratio (OR) ¼ 0.46, P ¼ 0.06). Among girls, greater soothability and negative reaction to food were associated with greater standardized weight status gain (b ¼ 0.19, Po0.01; and b ¼ 0.16, Po0.05, respectively) and increased obesity risk (OR ¼ 3.72, P ¼ 0.03; and OR ¼ 2.81, P ¼ 0.08, respectively). Biological mothers' obesity status predicted obesity risk in boys (OR ¼ 3.07, P ¼ 0.01) and girls (OR ¼ 5.94, P ¼ 0.03). Conclusions: Male infants with less attention span, and female infants with greater soothability or a more negative food reaction, showed greater increases in standardized weight and were more likely to be overweight/obese at the age of 6 years. The role of infant temperament in pediatric obesity onset warrants greater research.

Fat brains, greedy genes, and parent power: A biobehavioural risk model of child and adult obesity

“…Since the beginning of the child obesity epidemic, a wealth of cross-sectional evidence has accumulated to suggest that adiposity is related in a stepwise fashion to higher food cue responsiveness and/or lower sensitivity to internal satiety cues in children and infants, as assessed by either behavioural tests (Hill et al, 2008;Llewellyn et al, 2008), or parent-report questionnaire Spence et al, 2011;Webber et al, 2009). Now, a number of prospective studies are beginning to extend this research to provide persuasive support for the theory that these traits predict weight trajectories in childhood (Berkowitz et al, 2010;Webber et al, 2010b) and infancy (Faith & Hittner, 2010;.…”

Efecto del temperamento infantil en el peso del niño preescolar: una revisión sistemática

“…De los nueve estudios revisados, siete fueron realizados en Estados Unidos (5,9,10,11,15,16,17) , uno en Australia (12) y uno en el Reino Unido (13) . Respecto al diseño, tres de los estudios fueron de tipo transversal (13,15,16) y seis eran longitudinales (5,9,10,11,12,17) , estos estudios tenían de seguimiento de 2 hasta 10 años.…”

“…Respecto al diseño, tres de los estudios fueron de tipo transversal (13,15,16) y seis eran longitudinales (5,9,10,11,12,17) , estos estudios tenían de seguimiento de 2 hasta 10 años.…”

“…El temperamento se ha evaluado de diferentes formas, a través de rasgos, los cuales reflejan las respuestas que se dan de la reactividad atencional. En este sentido, un estudio encontró que el rasgo de habilidad para autocalmarse y la no capacidad de atención fueron predictores del exceso de peso en las niñas y niños preescolares respectivamente (10) . Otro estudio, demostró que el temperamento difícil (reactividad negativa) del hijo está asociado con su exceso de peso, problemática que se engrandece cuando la madre alimenta a su hijo frecuentemente como medida para calmarlo (5) .…”

“…Otro estudio, demostró que el temperamento difícil (reactividad negativa) del hijo está asociado con su exceso de peso, problemática que se engrandece cuando la madre alimenta a su hijo frecuentemente como medida para calmarlo (5) . Otros estudios evalúan la autorregulación, un estudio encontró que niños con bajo control inhibitorio (baja autorregulación) (11) y baja demora en la recompensa (9)(10)(11) tienen menor habilidad de utilizar estrategias para redirigir sus preferencias a los alimentos deseables, lo que se traduce a un incremento de peso a través del tiempo. Sin embargo, existen estudios que refieren que el temperamento infantil no se asocia al incremento de peso en la edad preescolar (12)(13) .…”