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Parental Feeding Practices, Weight Perception, and Children's Appetitive Traits Are Associated with Weight
Yujia Chen1, Fangge Qu1, Xiaoxue Wei1
1School of Nursing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200025, China.
Insights
Parental perception of a child's weight and their satiety responsiveness influence weight trajectories in preschoolers. Parental feeding practices did not significantly impact these weight patterns.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric obesity research
- Child development and nutrition
Background:
- Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern.
- Understanding weight trajectories in early childhood is crucial for intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify distinct body mass index-for-age z-score (BAZ) trajectories in preschoolers.
- To investigate associations between BAZ trajectories and parental feeding practices, weight perception, and children's appetitive traits.
Main Methods:
- Group-based trajectory modeling applied to longitudinal data from 433 preschoolers over two years.
- Logistic regression used to identify baseline predictors of BAZ trajectories.
Main Results:
- Three BAZ trajectories identified: low-stable (37.3%), moderate-stable (47.3%), and progressive overweight/obesity (15.4%).
- Parental perception of overweight/obesity (OR=10.57) and lower satiety responsiveness (OR=0.86) predicted the progressive overweight/obesity group.
- Parental perception of underweight predicted the low-stable group (OR=4.57).
Conclusions:
- Preschoolers exhibit distinct weight trajectories.
- Parental weight perception and children's satiety responsiveness are key factors in weight change.
- Parental feeding practices were not significantly associated with weight trajectories.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the trajectories of body mass index-for-age z-score (BAZ) in preschoolers and its association with parental feeding practices, weight perception, and children's appetitive traits.
Methods:
A total of 433 preschoolers and their parents from eight public kindergartens in Shanghai were assessed annually over two years. A group-based trajectory model was employed to identify distinct BAZ patterns. Logistic regression was utilized to investigate the baseline factors associated with the BAZ trajectories.
Results:
Three distinct BAZ trajectories were identified among the preschoolers: "low-stable group" (n = 154, 37.3%), "moderate-stable group" (n = 214, 47.3%), and "progressive overweight and obesity group" (n = 65, 15.4%). The children perceived as overweight and obese by parents (OR = 10.57, 95% CI: 4.89-22.86), and those with lower satiety responsiveness at baseline (OR = 0.86, 95%CI: 0.76-0.97) were more likely to fall into the progressive overweight and obesity group as opposed to the moderate-stable group. Conversely, the children perceived as underweight by parents (OR = 457, 95%CI: 2.71-7.70) had a higher likelihood of being in the low-stable group rather than the moderate-stable group.
Conclusions:
This study unveiled three unique body weight trajectories among preschool children. Parental perception of children's weight and lower satiety responsiveness were associated with preschoolers' subsequent weight change, while parental feeding practices were not associated.
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