Department of Human Development and Family Studies, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, United States.
Department of Nutrition, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, United States.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 10;10:975067. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.975067. eCollection 2022.
Parental controlling feeding styles and practices have been associated with greater food-approaching appetitive behaviors (i.e., food responsiveness) linked to childhood obesity. Recent longitudinal research suggests that this relationship may be reciprocal such that controlling feeding predicts child appetite and vice versa. However, to date no studies have considered these associations during infancy. The current study investigates prospective bidirectional associations between controlling feeding (restriction, pressure, and food to soothe) and infant food responsiveness. Mothers ( = 176) reported their controlling feeding and their infant's food responsiveness at infant age 2, 6, and 14 months. A 3-wave cross-lagged panel model was used to test the effect of controlling feeding at an earlier time point on infant food responsiveness at a later time point, and vice versa. Maternal controlling feeding and infant food responsiveness showed moderate stability across infancy. Net of covariates, we observed parent-driven prospective relations between pressuring feeding styles and food to soothe with infant food responsiveness. Pressuring to finish was a significant predictor of increases in food responsiveness from 2 to 6 months ( = 0.004) and pressuring with cereal was a significant predictor of increases in food responsiveness from 6 to 14 months ( = 0.02). Greater use of situational food to soothe was marginally associated with higher food responsiveness from 2 to 6 months ( = 0.07) and 6 to 14 months ( = 0.06). Prospective associations between restrictive feeding styles and infant food responsiveness were not observed. Findings point to pressuring feeding styles and food to soothe as potential early life intervention targets to prevent increases in food responsiveness in infancy. Longitudinal research with follow-up in the toddler and preschool years are needed to understand how these associations unfold over time and whether child-driven effects of food responsiveness become apparent as children get older.
父母控制喂养方式和行为与更大的食物接近性食欲行为（即食物反应性）有关，这些行为与儿童肥胖有关。最近的纵向研究表明，这种关系可能是相互的，即控制喂养预测儿童的食欲，反之亦然。然而，迄今为止，没有研究在婴儿期考虑过这些关联。本研究调查了控制喂养（限制、压力和食物安慰）与婴儿食物反应性之间的前瞻性双向关联。母亲（= 176）在婴儿 2、6 和 14 个月时报告了她们的控制喂养和婴儿的食物反应性。使用 3 波交叉滞后面板模型来测试较早时间点的控制喂养对较晚时间点婴儿食物反应性的影响，反之亦然。母亲的控制喂养和婴儿的食物反应性在婴儿期表现出适度的稳定性。在控制了协变量后，我们观察到在压力喂养方式和食物安慰与婴儿食物反应性之间存在父母驱动的前瞻性关系。强迫吃完是从 2 到 6 个月食物反应性增加的显著预测因素（= 0.004），用谷类食物强迫是从 6 到 14 个月食物反应性增加的显著预测因素（= 0.02）。更多地使用情境食物安慰与从 2 到 6 个月（= 0.07）和 6 到 14 个月（= 0.06）食物反应性增加呈边际相关。没有观察到限制喂养方式和婴儿食物反应性之间的前瞻性关联。研究结果表明，压力喂养方式和食物安慰可能是预防婴儿期食物反应性增加的早期生活干预目标。需要进行纵向研究并在幼儿和学龄前进行随访，以了解这些关联随时间的发展情况，以及随着儿童年龄的增长，食物反应性的儿童驱动效应是否变得明显。
