Child adiposity and maternal feeding practices a longitudinal analysis

Background Parental control has been hypothesized to cause weight gain in children by weakening self regulatory processes However most studies that link control with weight have been cross sectional and therefore causation is uncertain It remains possible that parental control is a response to child overweight rather than a cause Objective We investigated the direction of the association between parental feeding practices and children s adiposity in a longitudinal study Design Three subscales of the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) that measure pressure restriction and monitoring were completed by 213 mothers of 7-9 y old children as part of the Physical Exercise and Appetite in CHildren Study (PEACHES) and repeated by 113 mothers 3 y later Baseline and follow up anthropometric measurements [body mass index (BMI) fat mass index (FMI) and waist circumference (WC)] were made by researchers when the children were aged 7-9 y and 10-11 y Results Regression analyses showed no association between any of the CFQ scales at baseline and change in child adiposity In contrast higher child BMI at baseline predicted a smaller decrease in follow up CFQ monitoring (P = 0 003) and a larger decrease in pressure to cat (P = 0 04) after baseline scores were controlled for Similar results were observed for FMI and WC although they did not reach significance for WC There were no significant longitudinal associations between child adiposity and the CFQ restriction subscale Conclusion The results were more consistent with a child responsive model whereby a mother s choice of feeding practice is influenced by her child s weight status rather than her feeding practices influencing the child s weight gain Am J Clin Nutr 2010 92 1423-8