Stability, Continuity, and Bi-Directional Associations of Parental Feeding Practices and Standardized Child Body Mass Index in Children from 2 to 12 Years of Age.

(1) Background: Parental feeding practices are related to child body mass index (BMI, kg/m) and seem to be a consequence rather than cause of child BMI, but research so far is limited. Stability and continuity of feeding practices, probably explaining changes in food intake and child BMI, remain to be poorly examined. (2) Methods: Feeding practices (i.e., restriction, food as reward, pressure to eat, monitoring) assessed via the Child Feeding Questionnaire, child age, standardized BMI (BMI), and socio-economic status were measured annually at multiple visits (range 2-8) in a population-based longitudinal cohort study of 1512 parents with their children aged 2 to 12 years. Stability, continuity, and bi-directionality of feeding practices and child BMI were calculated using correlation coefficients, paired tests, and cross-lagged panels, respectively. (3) Results: Feeding practices and child BMI showed moderate to high stability. While continuity was high for restriction, minor temporal changes were observed for other feeding practices and child BMI. Cross-lags indicated that child BMI predicted restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring, while food-rewarding predicted child BMI only minorly. (4) Conclusions: Parents seem to adapt feeding practices to child BMI with the exception of food-rewarding.