Maternal Dietary Patterns during Pregnancy Are Associated with Child Growth in the First 3 Years of Life.
BACKGROUND
Child obesity is a major problem in the United States. Identifying early-life risk factors is necessary for prevention. Maternal diet during pregnancy is a primary source of fetal energy and might influence risk of child obesity.


OBJECTIVE
We prospectively investigated the influence of maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy on child growth in the first 3 y of life in 389 mother-child pairs from the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition study.


METHODS
Dietary patterns were derived with the use of latent class analysis (LCA) based on maternal diet, collected with the use of a food-frequency questionnaire at 26-29 wk gestation. Associations between maternal dietary patterns and child body mass index (BMI)-for-age z score and overweight or obesity were assessed with the use of linear regression and log-binomial regression, respectively. We used linear mixed models to estimate childhood growth patterns in relation to maternal dietary patterns.


RESULTS
Three patterns were identified from LCA: 1) fruits, vegetables, refined grains, red and processed meats, pizza, french fries, sweets, salty snacks, and soft drinks (latent class 1); 2) fruits, vegetables, baked chicken, whole-wheat bread, low-fat dairy, and water (latent class 2); and 3) white bread, red and processed meats, fried chicken, french fries, and vitamin C-rich drinks (latent class 3). In crude analyses, the latent class 3 diet was associated with a higher BMI-for-age z score at 1 and 3 y of age and a higher risk of overweight or obesity at 3 y of age than was the latent class 2 diet. These associations were not detectable after adjustment for confounding factors. We observed an inverse association between the latent class 3 diet and BMI-for-age z score at birth after adjustment for confounding factors that was not evident in the crude analysis (latent class 3 compared with latent class 2-β: -0.41; 95% CI: -0.79, -0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
In this prospective study, a less-healthy maternal dietary pattern was associated with early childhood weight patterns.
Department of Epidemiology and chantelmartin@unc.edu.
Chantel L
CL
Martin
Department of Epidemiology and.|Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Anna Maria
AM
Siega-Riz
Department of Biostatistics.
Daniela
D
Sotres-Alvarez
Department of Epidemiology and.
Whitney R
WR
Robinson
Department of Epidemiology and.
Julie L
JL
Daniels
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and.
Eliana M
EM
Perrin
Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
Alison M
AM
Stuebe
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
child overweight/obesity; dietary patterns; latent class analysis; maternal diet; pregnancy
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