Temperament and Parenting: Risks for Rapid Weight Gain and Childhood Obesity

儿童肥胖症正以惊人的速度增长。对于2-5岁的儿童，超重儿童的患病率在过去30年中几乎增加了两倍，从5%增加到13.9%，肥胖是一种多因素疾病，具有不同的原因，包括遗传，社会，文化和行为因素，所有这些因素都可能相互作用。本提案的目的是审查这些因素中的一些因素及其在婴儿期体重迅速增加和幼儿期超重中的作用。我们建议调查遗传基础的儿童特征和早期父母喂养的做法作为儿童肥胖的危险因素之间的相互作用。更具体地说，父母喂养的做法，用食物来安抚婴儿的痛苦是明确的互动与气质特质的紧迫性，这是一个敏感的奖励系统的特点，以增加儿童肥胖的风险。这一假设是由所提出的研究的中心原则指导的;气质与健康和调整间接地通过唤起养育反应或通过与养育行为的相互作用，这可能会缓冲负面缺陷或增加不良结果的风险。为了实现这一目标，将使用多种方法，包括日记、实验室访视、电话调查和父母报告，在出生后的前18个月评估婴儿/幼儿的气质和养育。婴儿期体重快速增加和幼儿期体重是建议的结果。确定儿童生命早期存在的可改变因素将有助于更成功地采取旨在减少儿童和成人肥胖的干预措施。

Obesity in childhood is increasing at an alarming rate. For children ages 2-5 years, the prevalence of overweight children has almost tripled over the last 30 years, from 5% to 13.9%, Obesity is a multifactorial condition with varying causes including genetic, social, cultural, and behavioral factors, all of which may interact. The aims of the present proposal are to examine a number of these factors and their role in rapid weight gain in infancy and overweight in early childhood. We propose to investigate the interaction between genetically-based child characteristics and early parent feeding practices as risk factors for childhood obesity. More specifically, the parent feeding practices of using food to soothe infant distress is explicitly to interact with the temperament trait of urgency, which is characterized by a sensitive reward system, to increase the risk of childhood obesity. This hypothesis is guided by the central principle of the proposed study; that temperament is linked to health and adjustment either indirectly by evoking parenting responses or through interactions with parenting behaviors that may either buffer the negative defects or increase the risk for poor outcome. Toward this goal infant/toddler temperament and parenting will be assessed throughout the first l8 months of life using multiple methods including diaries, laboratory visit" telephone surveys and parent reports. Rapid weight gain in infancy and toddler weight are the proposed outcomes. Identifying modifiable factors present early in a child's life will contribute to more successful interventions aimed at reducing childhood and adult obesity.