Protective Eating Behaviors Among Children at Higher Risk for Obesity in the INSIGHT Study

Background: Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with offspring overweight. We investigated behaviors that may confer resilience to childhood overweight development by examining appetitive traits in at-risk children born to mothers with pre-pregnancy overweight. Methods: This secondary analysis included children born to mothers with pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m² from the Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Health Trajectories Study (N = 84). Mothers completed the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) at child ages 30 months and 6 years. t-tests assessed differences in appetitive traits (CEBQ subscale scores) between children with overweight (BMI ≥85th percentile) and without overweight (BMI <85th percentile). Results: The 87 children (41 female [47%]) included in this analysis were predominantly White and non-Hispanic (93%), and 34 (39%) had overweight at age 6 years. Compared with children with overweight, children without overweight had mothers who reported greater child slowness in eating when their child was 30 months (p = 0.04) and 6 years old (p = 0.004). Similarly, mothers of children without overweight reported higher child satiety responsiveness, lower enjoyment of food, and lower food responsiveness (p < 0.001 for all) when their child was 6 years old. Conclusion: Eating slower, higher satiety responsiveness, lower enjoyment of food, and lower food responsiveness were protective factors against developing overweight among those with familial risk. Strategies to promote the development of slower eating and satiety responsiveness could be explored as part of obesity prevention strategies.