Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Influence of Infant-Caregiver Feeding Interactions on Diet, Growth and Metabolic Development

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Research in human biology has provided evidence that early life factors shape later life outcomes through biological mechanisms. This dissertation research project will investigate linkages between physiological and nutritional aspects of early life and the risk of childhood and adult obesity, with a specific focus on diet, appetite and growth during the first year of life. The results will shed light on what kinds of diets during infancy might reduce obesity risk, and on social factors that help families make more optimal dietary choices. The project addresses fundamental questions in life history theory, and will be relevant to the well-being of the US population, for which obesity rates continue to increase. Data will be shared with clinical practitioners who advise families from all types of social backgrounds about nutrition for their children, and policy makers who focus on improving access to adequate nutrition for young children and their families. The project will also support student training in STEM research at the undergraduate and graduate levels.This project integrates social determinants of health and developmental origins of health and disease frameworks to investigate how social contexts influence access to nutrition and information about nutrition, and how the nutrition infants experience shapes long-term health. It also uses the concept of the developmental niche to explore how caregiver observations of infant growth and family mealtime interactions influence what and how infants eat. The investigator will follow Latino families with young infants from 3 to 12 months of age. Ethnographic interviews will be conducted to understand what kinds of factors influence how and what parents feed their infants. Survey and observational data will be collected to understand how infant appetite and mealtime interactions influence what and how much infants eat. Growth hormones and infant growth measurements will be collected to understand how infants' diets influence their growth and growth hormones. Appetite hormone analysis will be completed to understand how appetite hormones influence and are influenced by infant nutrition. The findings will illuminate how social contexts, family behaviors and infant biology are intertwined in ways that may influence obesity risk.