Capacity for Regulation of Energy Intake in Infancy.

Importance: The capacity for regulation of energy intake (REI) to match energy needs is thought to contribute to differences in weight gain, and preventing excess infant weight gain is a priority.

Objective: To determine capacity for REI across infancy.

Design, Setting, And Participants: For this cohort study, a convenience sample of mother-infant dyads was recruited from the community in Michigan between 2015 and 2019.

Characterization of a Vigorous sucking style in early infancy and its predictive value for weight gain and eating behaviors at 12 months.

This study sought to identify sucking profiles among healthy, full-term infants and assess their predictive value for future weight gain and eating behaviors. Pressure waves of infant sucking were captured during a typical feeding at age 4 months and quantified via 14 metrics. Anthropometry was measured at 4 and 12 months, and eating behaviors were measured by parent report via the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire-Toddler (CEBQ-T) at 12 months.

Associations of maternal food addiction, dietary restraint, and pre-pregnancy BMI with infant eating behaviors and risk for overweight.

Maternal food addiction, dietary restraint, and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) are associated with high-risk eating behaviors and weight characteristics in children and adolescents. However, little is known about how these maternal factors are associated with individual differences in eating behaviors and risk for overweight in infancy. In a sample of 204 infant-mother dyads, maternal food addiction, dietary restraint and pre-pregnancy BMI were assessed using maternal self-report measures.

Characteristics of eating behavior profiles among preschoolers with low-income backgrounds: a person-centered analysis.

Background: Individual differences in eating behaviors among young children are well-established, but the extent to which behaviors aggregate within individuals to form distinct eating behavior profiles remains unknown. Our objectives were to identify eating behavior profiles among preschool-aged children and evaluate associations with temperament and weight.

Methods: A secondary, cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 2 cohort studies was conducted involving 1004 children aged 3-4 years and their parents with low-income backgrounds.

Emerging Ideas Brief Report. How Do Low-Income Mothers Talk to Children About Weight and Body Shape?

Objective: Identify mothers' perceptions of how they talk about weight and body shape with their children and examine how approaches vary by mother and child characteristics.

Background: Youth who report that their parents talk with them about their weight experience poor health. However, very little is known about the content of these conversations.

Behavioral Responses to Sucrose as an Indicator of Positive Hedonic Response Across the First Six Months of Infancy.

Behavioral responses to sucrose provide an index of positive hedonic response in newborns. In 118 infants, the current study used repeated assessments to explore behavioral responses to sucrose solutions (24%/50% sucrose) compared to water across the first six months of infancy. Lip smacking and bringing fingers to mouth are more likely to occur in response to 24% sucrose relative to water.

Phenotypes of controlling feeding behaviours in mothers of toddlers: A mixed methods study.

Background: Maternal feeding behaviours, in particular controlling behaviours, are associated with risk of childhood obesity.

Objectives: To qualitatively examine patterns of mothers' beliefs and behaviours around controlling feeding through a semi-structured interview and to examine associations of those patterns with participant demographic characteristics and classical child feeding instruments.

Methods: A convenience sample of mothers (N = 35) of toddlers (mean age 25 months) participated in a semi-structured interview about their child feeding beliefs and behaviours.

Maternal prompting types and child vegetable intake: Exploring the moderating role of picky eating.

Background: It is unknown if using different maternal prompting types is associated with vegetable intake in children perceived to be picky versus non-picky.

Objectives: 1) To test the correlation of counts of maternal prompting types with child vegetable intake, and picky eating, 2) to examine the interaction of prompting types and picky eating status on vegetable intake.

Design/methods: Low-income mother-child dyads (N = 199, mean child age 6.

Feeding styles among mothers of low-income children identified using a person-centered multi-method approach.

Background: Maternal feeding styles have been associated with children's eating behaviors and obesity risk. Few works have identified maternal feeding styles using a multi-method person-centered approach.

Objectives: (1) To identify maternal feeding styles using a person-centered multi-method approach, and (2) to examine the association of child weight status with maternal feeding styles.

Donuts on our daughters: Gender differences in food categories on children's apparel.

Objective: Recent trends in children's fashion have featured food-graphics on children's apparel. Little attention has been paid to the food-graphic content of children's apparel. The objectives of this study were to describe and quantify food-graphics appearing on children's apparel, to examine characteristics of children's apparel items associated with the presence versus absence of food-graphics, and to examine gender differences in food-graphics.

Deconstructing the Family Meal: Are Characteristics of the Mealtime Environment Associated with the Healthfulness of Meals Served?

Background: Multiple studies and guidelines emphasize the benefits associated with family meals. However, family meals are not well defined and little research has been conducted to determine whether mealtime characteristics are associated with the healthfulness of foods served.

Objective: The objective of this study was to define and measure specific mealtime characteristics and examine whether these characteristics are associated with the healthfulness of meals served to young children from low-income families, as measured by the Healthy Meal Index (HMI).

Approaches to restrictive feeding: Associations with child weight and eating behavior.

Background: Identifying differences in how mothers communicate restriction of their children's eating may be important to understanding the effects of restriction on children's intake and weight status.

Objectives: To characterize mothers' restrictive statements by affect and directness, and examine cross-sectional associations between restrictive statement types and children's body mass index and eating behaviors.

Methods: Mother-child dyads (N = 223, mean child age 5.

An investigation of maternal food intake and maternal food talk as predictors of child food intake.

Though parental modeling is thought to play a critical role in promoting children's healthy eating, little research has examined maternal food intake and maternal food talk as independent predictors of children's food intake. The present study examines maternal food talk during a structured eating protocol, in which mothers and their children had the opportunity to eat a series of familiar and unfamiliar vegetables and desserts. Several aspects of maternal talk during the protocol were coded, including overall food talk, directives, pronoun use, and questions.

Selective eating behaviors in children: An observational validation of parental report measures.

Selective eating in children is commonly measured by parental report questionnaires, yet it is unknown if parents accurately estimate their child's selective eating behavior. The objectives of this study were to test the validity and stability of two measures of selective eating using observed child behavior. Low-income mother-child dyads participated in a videotaped laboratory eating protocol at two time points (baseline: mean child age = 5.

Maternal Mental Representations of the Child and Mobile Phone Use During Parent-Child Mealtimes.

Objective: Qualities of the parent-child relationship have not been explored as predictors of parent mobile device use during parent-child activities.

Methods: In 195 mother-child dyads enrolled in an ongoing cohort study, maternal mental representations of their child (ability to reflect on their child's characteristics, emotional state, and their parenting role) were evaluated through the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI), a validated semistructured interview. WMCI scale scores were examined as predictors of active maternal mobile device use during parent-child eating encounters (videotaped home mealtimes and a structured laboratory-based protocol) in multivariate logistic regression models.

Do children with obesity have worse table manners? Associations between child table manners, weight status and weight gain.

Background: Children with obesity experience stigma stemming from stereotypes, one such stereotype is that people with obesity are "sloppy" or have poor manners. Teaching children "proper table manners" has been proposed as an obesity prevention strategy. Little is known about the association between children's weight status and table manners.

Picky eating, pressuring feeding, and growth in toddlers.

Several common theoretical frameworks have posited causal pathways between picky eating, pressuring feeding, and growth in early childhood. The evidence to support these pathways is limited. This observational cohort study sought to examine the cross-lagged associations between mother-reported pressuring feeding, mother-reported child picky eating, and measured weight-for-length z-score (WLZ) across child ages 21, 27, and 33 months (n = 244).

Maternal restrictive feeding and eating in the absence of hunger among toddlers: a cohort study.

Background: Restrictive feeding by parents has been associated with greater eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) among children, a risk factor for obesity. However, few studies have examined the association between restrictive feeding and EAH longitudinally, raising questions regarding the direction of associations between restrictive feeding and child EAH. Our objective was to examine the bidirectional prospective associations between restrictive feeding and EAH among toddlers.

Mothers of Obese Children Use More Direct Imperatives to Restrict Eating.

Objective: To examine the association of mother and child characteristics with use of direct imperatives to restrict eating.

Methods: A total of 237 mother-child dyads (mean child age, 70.9 months) participated in a video-recorded, laboratory-standardized eating protocol with 2 large portions of cupcakes.

Association of Picky Eating With Weight Status and Dietary Quality Among Low-Income Preschoolers.

Background: Picky eating is common in children. Few studies have examined predictors of picky eating, and the association of picky eating with weight status and dietary quality is inconsistent in the literature. We aimed to identify predictors of picky eating and to test the association of picky eating with child body mass index z-score (BMIz), dietary quality, and micronutrient intake.

Feeding and Mealtime Correlates of Maternal Concern About Children's Weight.

Objective: To examine associations between maternal concern regarding their children becoming overweight and two domains of weight-related parenting; child feeding practices and family meal characteristics.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Participants: Low-income mothers (n = 264; 67% non-Hispanic white) and their children (51.

Maternal Concern for Child Undereating.

Objective: To describe features of maternal concern for her child undereating; examine maternal and child correlates of maternal concern for undereating; and determine whether maternal concern for undereating is associated with feeding practices.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of an observational study with 286 mother-child dyads (mean child age, 71 months). Maternal concern for undereating was assessed using a semistructured interview.

Affective tone of mothers' statements to restrict their children's eating.

Maternal restrictive feeding behaviors have been associated with child weight status. The affective tone of mothers' statements intended to restrict their children's eating has not been examined. The objectives of this study were to describe the affective tone of mothers' restrictive feeding behaviors (positive or negative), and to test the association of child and mother characteristics with rates of Restriction with Positive Affect, Restriction with Negative Affect and Total Restriction.

The Evolution of Mothers' Beliefs About Overweight and Obesity in Their Early School-Age Children.

Objective: To identify changes in maternal beliefs, concerns, and perspectives about overweight and obesity in their children over a 2-year period.

Methods: A total of 37 low-income English-speaking mothers of overweight or obese children participated in 2 semistructured interviews, separated by about 2 years. Mean child age was 5.