Influence of early feeding style on adiposity at 6 years of age.
In a previous study we found that a vigorous infant feeding style measured in the laboratory at 2 and 4 weeks of age predicted the degree of adiposity at 1 and 2 years of age. A follow-up of this cohort of infants at 3 and 6 years of age is now reported. Factors predicting adiposity, measured by body mass index at 3 years of age, were pressure of suckling, with high-pressure sucking (denoting a vigorous feeding style) associated with greater adiposity, and time of introduction of solid food, with delayed introduction of solid food or breast-feeding longer than 5 months, or both, being associated with greater adiposity. Predictive factors at 6 years of age were adiposity at birth, with greater adiposity at birth predicting greater fatness at 6 years, parental education, with less education associated with fatness, and a prolonged period of breast-feeding with delayed introduction of solid food. These factors accounted for 40.4% of the variance in adiposity at 3 years of age and 31.2% at 6 years. The effects of social learning on body mass index, indicated by parental educational level, appear to strengthen over time, whereas the effects of the vigorous feeding style wane.
Agras
W S
WS
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305.
Kraemer
H C
HC
Berkowitz
R I
RI
Hammer
L D
LD
D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011336:Probability; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D013391:Sucking Behavior