Creation of an adiposity index for children aged 6-8 years: the Gateshead Millennium Study.

Objective: A number of measures of childhood adiposity are in use, but all are relatively imprecise and prone to bias. We constructed an adiposity index (AI) using a number of different measures.

Methods: Detailed body composition data on 460 of the Gateshead Millennium Study cohort at the age of 6-8 years were analysed.

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes in 7- to 11-year-old girls: testing a sociocultural model.

We examined the sociocultural model of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitude development in young girls for the first time. According to the model, internalizing an unrealistically thin ideal body increases the risk of disordered eating via body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and depression. Girls aged 7-11 years (N=127) completed measures of thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting, depression, and disordered eating attitudes.

Earlier predictors of eating disorder symptoms in 9-year-old children. A longitudinal study.

The aim of the study was to examine predictors of eating disorder symptoms in a population based sample at the earliest age at which they can be measured using the Children's Eating Attitudes Test. Data were collected from the longitudinal Gateshead Millennium Study cohort; 609 children participated in the 7 year data sweep (and their mothers and teachers), and 589 children participated in the 9 year data sweep. Eating disorder symptoms at 9 years were higher in boys, and in children from more deprived families.

Use of the PedsQL in childhood intermittent exotropia: estimates of feasibility, internal consistency reliability and parent-child agreement.

Purpose: To evaluate the PedsQLs performance in children with intermittent exotropia (X[T]) in terms of feasibility, internal consistency, floor-ceiling effects and levels of parent-child agreement.

Methods: Children with X(T) aged <12 years were recruited from 26 UK Hospital Eye Clinics/Orthoptic Departments. QOL was assessed using child (n = 166) and proxy (n = 392) versions of the PedsQLv4.

Do maternal ratings of appetite in infants predict later Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire scores and body mass index?

In a longitudinal birth cohort maternal ratings of children's appetite made at 6 weeks, 12 months and 5-6 years were correlated with one another and with subscales from the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) at 5-6 years, and body mass index (BMI) at 6-8 years. Statistically significant correlations were found between the children's appetite ratings. Appetite ratings in infancy were also correlated with the CEBQ subscale scores at 5-6 years to a limited extent, but not with the BMI at 6-8 years.

Milk intake and feeding behavior in the first week of life and its relationship to cord blood ghrelin, leptin, and insulin concentrations.

Our aim was to study the feeding behavior of healthy term infants in the first week of life and determine whether this was related to cord blood leptin, ghrelin, and insulin. A total of 100 healthy bottle-fed infants were studied by weighing bottles of milk before and after feeds. Leptin, total ghrelin, and insulin concentrations were measured in cord blood.

How do toddler eating problems relate to their eating behavior, food preferences, and growth?

Objectives: Eating problems are a common cause of concern for the parents of toddlers, but few studies have examined the correlates of eating problems or the growth patterns associated with them in a large population-based sample. Our goal was to examine the distribution of eating behaviors in a large representative sample of toddlers and their mothers' approach to feeding. In addition, we describe the prevalence of parentally perceived eating problems and how they relate to specific behaviors, food preferences, and growth in the child.

Weight faltering in infancy and IQ levels at 8 years in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Objective: Our goal was to investigate the association between failure to thrive (defined as weight faltering in the first 9 months of life) and IQ levels 8 years later.

Methods: Weight gain (conditional on initial weight) from birth to 8 weeks, 8 weeks to 9 months, and birth to 9 months was measured on term infants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Cases of weight faltering were defined as those infants with a conditional weight gain below the 5th centile who were compared with the rest of the cohort as the control group.

The relationship between birthweight, weight gain in infancy, and educational attainment in childhood.

Previous studies have examined the relationship between low weight gain (failure to thrive) in infancy and later cognitive ability, but no study to date appears to have examined the relationship between weight gain in infancy across the 'normal' range and later cognitive ability. We report results for a large prospective birth cohort of the relationship between weight gain in infancy and educational attainment at age 10. Routinely recorded weights from child health clinic records for an annual birth cohort of 3418 children born with gestation >36 weeks were collected, as well as gestation in weeks, birthweight and the postcode, for which the Townsend Deprivation Score was identified.

How does maternal and child feeding behavior relate to weight gain and failure to thrive? Data from a prospective birth cohort.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to study the influences of child and maternal feeding behavior on weight gain and failure to thrive in the first year of life.

Methods: The Millennium Infant Study recruited a population birth cohort in Northeast England shortly after birth and studied them prospectively to the age of 13 months. Parents completed questionnaires at 6 weeks and 4, 8, and 12 months.

Psychophysiological correlates of anxiety: a single-case study.

We examined the relationship between self-reported anxiety and physiological measures (blood pressure and heart rate) in a series of exposures to a feared situation of a single participant with panic disorder with agoraphobia. During each exposure, readings of heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were taken every 20 s. Over 30 exposures, we found a near-linear relationship between anxiety and the three physiological measures.

Mealtime energy intake and feeding behaviour in children who fail to thrive: a population-based case-control study.

Background: The essential link between energy needs and energy intake is feeding behaviour, yet few studies have directly observed feeding behaviour in children who have failed to thrive. A cohort of 961 term infants was screened to identify children with first year weight gain below the 5th centile in order to examine their feeding behaviour and food intake.

Methods: A nested case-control study was used with direct observation at 13-21 months over two lunchtime meals, one consisting of finger foods and the other of 'spoon foods'.

Feeding behaviour in young children who fail to thrive.

One-year-old children who failed to thrive in infancy were identified through a specialist clinical service using a conditional weight gain criterion which identified the slowest gaining 5%. Control children of the same age and sex were recruited from the same local geographical area and had the same primary care physician. The food intake and feeding behaviour of the groups was compared using a detailed observational micro-analysis of a lunchtime meal, using a behavioural coding scheme developed for use over the weaning period.