Stability, Continuity, and Bi-Directional Associations of Parental Feeding Practices and Standardized Child Body Mass Index in Children from 2 to 12 Years of Age.

Janina Eichler,Anja Hilbert,Tanja Poulain,Ricarda Schmidt,Andreas Hiemisch,Wieland Kiess

doi:10.3390/nu11081751

Janina Eichler, Anja Hilbert + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081751

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Abstract

(1) Background: Parental feeding practices are related to child body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and seem to be a consequence rather than cause of child BMI, but research so far is limited. Stability and continuity of feeding practices, probably explaining changes in food intake and child BMI, remain to be poorly examined. (2) Methods: Feeding practices (i.e., restriction, food as reward, pressure to eat, monitoring) assessed via the Child Feeding Questionnaire, child age, standardized BMI (zBMI), and socio-economic status were measured annually at multiple visits (range 2–8) in a population-based longitudinal cohort study of 1512 parents with their children aged 2 to 12 years. Stability, continuity, and bi-directionality of feeding practices and child zBMI were calculated using correlation coefficients, paired t tests, and cross-lagged panels, respectively. (3) Results: Feeding practices and child zBMI showed moderate to high stability. While continuity was high for restriction, minor temporal changes were observed for other feeding practices and child zBMI. Cross-lags indicated that child zBMI predicted restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring, while food-rewarding predicted child zBMI only minorly. (4) Conclusions: Parents seem to adapt feeding practices to child zBMI with the exception of food-rewarding.

Highlights

Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are an increasing public health concern [1,2,3].While in 1980 16.9% of boys and 16.2% of girls were overweight or obese, international prevalence rates rose to 23.8% and 22.6% in 2013, respectively [4]
While continuity was high for restriction, minor temporal changes were observed for other feeding practices and child zBMI
The present study showed that higher standardized child BMI predicted higher levels of parental monitoring one year later in school-aged children between 6 and 11 years

Summary

Introduction

Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are an increasing public health concern [1,2,3]. While in 1980 16.9% of boys and 16.2% of girls were overweight or obese, international prevalence rates rose to 23.8% and 22.6% in 2013, respectively [4]. Overweight and obesity are caused by an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure [8], but their etiologies are complex [1,9]. The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity suggests that environmental and genetic factors are involved in the development of childhood overweight and obesity. A change in these environmental factors could promote a reduction in the obesity epidemic [10].

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