Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, College of Arts and Sciences, P.O. Box 210376, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, United States.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
Matern Child Health J. 2023 Jun;27(6):1089-1096. doi: 10.1007/s10995-023-03646-z. Epub 2023 Apr 3.
Maternal feeding practices may be linked to infant obesogenic outcomes, but research to date has focused primarily on infant growth as an outcome of maternal feeding practices rather than exploring additional obesogenic outcomes like infant appetite and diet. Therefore, the current study examined the association between maternal feeding practices and beliefs and infant growth, diet, and appetite simultaneously at a critical timepoint for obesity risk development (i.e., 3-months-old).
Thirty-two 3-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this cross-sectional study. Infant anthropometrics were collected by trained staff and mothers completed questionnaires regarding maternal feeding practices and beliefs and infant diet and appetite. The data were analyzed by Spearman correlations.
Statistically significant correlations were identified between maternal feeding practices (e.g., using food to calm, concern about infant weight) and infant satiety, appetite, food responsiveness, slow eating, and kilocalories consumed. Infant weight-for-length was related to maternal concern about infant underweight and mother-infant social interaction during feeding.
These findings highlight the importance of the mother-infant feeding relationship and how these associations may influence responsive feeding practices and infant weight-related outcomes.
母亲的喂养方式可能与婴儿肥胖有关，但迄今为止的研究主要集中在婴儿生长作为母亲喂养方式的结果上，而不是探索婴儿食欲和饮食等其他肥胖结果。因此，本研究在肥胖风险发展的关键时间点（即 3 个月大）同时检查了母亲的喂养方式和信念与婴儿生长、饮食和食欲之间的关系。
32 名 3 个月大的婴儿及其母亲参加了这项横断面研究。婴儿的人体测量数据由经过培训的工作人员收集，母亲完成了关于母亲喂养方式和信念以及婴儿饮食和食欲的问卷。数据分析采用 Spearman 相关分析。
母亲的喂养方式（例如，用食物来安抚，担心婴儿体重）与婴儿饱腹感、食欲、食物反应性、进食速度慢和消耗的卡路里之间存在显著的统计学相关性。婴儿的体重-身长与母亲对婴儿体重不足的担忧以及喂养过程中母婴的社会互动有关。
这些发现强调了母婴喂养关系的重要性，以及这些关联如何影响反应性喂养方式和与婴儿体重相关的结果。
