Abstract P210: Associations Of Early Parental Feeding Concerns And Behaviors With Child’s Dietary Intakes Throughout Childhood

Abstract

Introduction: Parental feeding behaviors have been found to be associated with dietary intakes and weight status in children, although the longitudinal associations of parental feeding behaviors in early life with diet later in childhood have been scarcely studied. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that parental feeding restriction, pressure to eat, and concerns about child’s weight would be associated with poorer diet quality throughout childhood. Methods: Among 1172 mother-child pairs from Project Viva, we examined associations of parental feeding behaviors at 2 years assessed via questions from the Child Feeding Questionnaire (behaviors dichotomized as yes vs. no) with diet quality in early (mean: 3.2, SD 0.2 years; n=1076) and mid-childhood (mean: 7.8, SD 0.7 years; n=993) assessed via food frequency questionnaires. We used linear regression models adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics, maternal and paternal body mass index, and maternal diet quality in pregnancy. Results: At 2 years postpartum, 47% of parents pressured/encouraged their child to eat more, 8% restricted their intakes, 15% were concerned about their child being overweight and 7% about their child being underweight. Parental pressure to eat at 2 years was associated with higher child intake of fruit juice (β 0.17 serving/day; 95% CI 0.01, 0.34) and snack foods (0.12 serving/day; 0.01, 0.22) in early childhood and with lower youth healthy eating index score (-1.32 points; -2.54, -0.10; score from 0 to 85 points) in mid-childhood. Parental feeding restriction at 2 years was associated with lower intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (-0.17 serving/day; -0.27, -0.06) in early childhood and with lower intake of dairy (-0.29 serving/day; -0.56, -0.02) in mid-childhood. Parental concerns about their child being underweight was associated with lower youth healthy eating index score (-2.18 points; -4.30, -0.05; score from 0 to 95 points) in early childhood while concerns about their child being overweight was associated with higher intakes of red and processed meat (0.14 serving/day; 0.04, 0.23) in early childhood and higher intake of baked products in mid-childhood (0.07 serving/day; 0.01, 0.13). Conclusions: We found that early parental feeding behaviors may have a modest contribution to dietary intakes throughout childhood. However, only a few associations persisted after adjusting for socio-economic and parental characteristics and effect sizes were modest. Strategies to improve diet quality in children might need to focus on the broader family and socio-economic context.