Does a vigorous feeding style influence early development of adiposity?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(87)80029-XGet rights and content

A prospective study of a cohort of healthy infants observed from birth to 2 years of age was carrled out to investigate factors influencing the development of early adiposity. Infant suckling was measured in the laboratory twice during the first month of life. Multiple regression analyses revealed that parental educational level and a measure of feeding behavior, the interval between bursts of suckling, accounted for 18% of the variance in triceps skinfold measures at 1 year of age. A lower level of education and shorter interburst interval were associated with increased adiposity. Two feeding variables, pressure of suckling and the number of reported feeds per day, accounted for 21% of the variance in skinfold thickness at 2 years of age. Fewer, but larger, feeds and a higher sucking pressure were associated with a greater degree of adiposity. It seems that a vigorous infant feeding style, consisting of sucking more rapidly, at higher pressure, with a longer suck and burst duration, and a shorter interval between bursts of sucking, is associated with higher caloric intake and greater adiposity. The early development of this feeding style suggests that it may be a genetically endowed behavior. Breast-feeding protected against early adiposity only to the age of 6 months in this cohort of infants.

References (31)

  • MellbinT et al.

    Relationship of weight gain in infancy to subcutaneous fat and relative weight at 10 1/2 years of age

    Br J Prev Soc Med

    (1976)
  • MackRW et al.

    The relationship between grwoth in infancy and growth in adolescence: report of a longitudinal study among urban black adolescents

    Hum Biol

    (1976)
  • MellbinT et al.

    The relative importance of rapid weight gain in infancy as a precursor of childhood obesity

    Pediatr Adolesc Endocrinol

    (1983)
  • ShapiroLR et al.

    Obesity prognosis: a longitudinal study of children from the age of 6 months to 9 years

    Am J Publ Health

    (1984)
  • CharneyE et al.

    Childhood antecedents of adult obesity: Do chubby infants become obese adults?

    N Engl J Med

    (1976)
  • Cited by (92)

    • Sucking behavior in typical and challenging feedings in association with weight gain from birth to 4 Months in full-term infants: Sucking and Weight Gain in Infancy

      2020, Appetite
      Citation Excerpt :

      Nonetheless, the pattern of findings suggests that infants who maintain a large volume of intake per individual suck even when sucking becomes more challenging have future greater prospective rate of weight gain. Our inclusion of an experimental condition in which the infant was faced with a challenge to sucking provides unique information and adds to the prior literature reporting associations between sucking vigor and weight gain (Agras et al., 1987, 1990; Stough et al., 2018; Stunkard et al., 2004). Our study findings differed from the single prior study we were able to identify that examined how infants of differing weight status differentially responded to making it more difficult to feed (Nisbett & Gurwitz, 1970).

    • Greater analgesic effects of sucrose in the neonate predict greater weight gain to age 18 months

      2020, Appetite
      Citation Excerpt :

      Eating behavior is a likely contributor to differential rates of weight gain. Infants with a vigorous sucking pattern (Agras, Kraemer, Berkowitz, & Hammer, 1990; Agras, Kraemer, Berkowitz, Korner, & Hammer, 1987; Waterland, Berkowitz, Stunkard, & Stallings, 1998), and whose mothers rate them as having a “big appetite” (Llewellyn, van Jaarsveld, Johnson, Carnell, & Wardle, 2010) gain more weight in infancy. Our findings suggest that newborn analgesic response to intraoral sucrose may be an additional behavioral indicator of risk for rapid infant weight gain.

    • Food reinforcement during infancy

      2016, Preventive Medicine
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Supported in part by Grant HD 14629 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development

    View full text