Pediatric Chief Resident University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Background: Eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) is associated with overweight in children. There are no published reports of EAH measured in infancy and correlates of EAH in infancy have not been examined. Objective: (1) To validate the measurement of EAH in infancy; (2) to identify infant, maternal, and demographic predictors of EAH in healthy 12-month-old infants. Design/Methods: Mother-infant dyads (N=120) were recruited. After eating a meal to satiety (based on maternal assessment), infants were offered five desserts, latency to first bite was recorded and kilocalories (kcal) consumed measured. Mothers reported demographics, infant eating behaviors (Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire-Toddler; CEBQ-T), Food to Soothe Questionnaire, dietary intake, food-related tantrums (4 items about asking for food, maternal response, and tantrums when denied), and maternal feeding practices (Infant Feeding Styles Questionnaire; IFSQ). Infant weight-for-length was z-scored by World Health Organization standards (WLZ). Bivariate unadjusted analyses (t-tests of Spearman correlation) were used to test associations between infant, maternal, and demographic characteristics and kcals consumed. Results: The sample was 53% male and 68% white; mean maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index was 27.1 (SD 7.5). Mean infant WLZ was 0.33 (SD 0.93). Median kcal consumed was 70.9 (interquartile range 47.8 – 122.2) and mean latency to first bite was 41.5 seconds. Kcal consumed was negatively correlated with latency to first bite (r= -.21), and positively correlated with CEBQ-T Food Responsiveness (r= .26), Enjoyment of Food (r= .26), and Food Fussiness (r= -.20) (p’s < .05). Frequent tantrums when denied food and being fed sweets in the regular diet were each associated with kcal consumed (p’s <.01). Maternal feeding practices (IFSQ Controlling subscale, use of Food to Soothe, breastfeeding duration, and age at introduction of solid foods) were not associated with kcal consumed. Correlations with kcal consumed were r = .18 (p=.06) for infant WLZ; and r = .16 (p=.08) for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI. Kilocalories consumed was not associated with demographic characteristics.
Conclusion(s): EAH can be measured with validity at infant age 12 months, as evidenced by correlations with latency to eat and maternal report of infant eating behaviors. Few maternal feeding practices or demographic factors were correlated with kcal consumed. EAH was not significantly associated with infant and maternal adiposity. Future work should consider continuity of infant EAH with future eating behaviors and seek to examine mechanisms underlying the behavior.
