MATERNAL INFLUENCES ON INFANT FEEDING AND INTAKE REGULATION

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The prevalence of overweight in infancy has increased over the past two decades. Environmental factors are likely at work as this increase has occurred too rapidly to be attributable to changes in the gene pool. Overweight infants are likely to remain overweight at later points of development, particularly when one or more parent is heavy. The nature of parental contribution to infant weight status and growth remain unclear; heavy parents provide their offspring with both genetic material and the environment in which eating occurs. Infancy provides a unique opportunity to assess the influence of feeding practices on the regulation of energy intake and growth because the food composition of the diet is relatively simple and its availability to the infant is completely controlled by the care giver. Infants and young children have demonstrated ability to self-regulate energy intake by adjusting intake based on the energy density of the diet. Research with pre-school aged children has shown that feeding interactions that result in decreased attention to children's own hunger and fullness may contribute to the development of overweight. Whether feeding interactions may serve as a basis for individual differences in energy intake regulation and weight gain at earlier points in development is unknown. The main goal of the proposed research is to test whether greater levels of maternal insensitivity to infants' fullness or hunger cues are associated with greater impairment of infants' ability to self-regulate energy intake and greater gains in weight and body fat during the first year of life. A secondary goal is to evaluate factors which may predict maternal sensitivity to infant feeding cues including maternal weight status, feeding method, maternal perceptions of the infant's ability to self-regulate intake and mothers' responsiveness to her own hunger and fullness cues. To address these goals, measures of food intake regulation and maternal sensitivity to infant hunger cues will be developed in the first year of the project. These measures will be used to prospectively evaluate maternal influences on infant food intake regulation and growth in a sample of infants seen at 3, 6, and 12 months of age.