Rapid infant weight gain (RWG) in the first six months postpartum is a strong predictor for obesity during childhood and adolescence. Although biological factors can influence infant weight gain trajectories, the modifiable factor of parent feeding practices can also have an influence. The use of food to soothe (FTS), or the act of feeding a child when he/she is upset for reasons other than hunger, has been associated with unhealthy eating behaviors and less-favorable weight outcomes in children and older infants. However, limited studies have explored the use of FTS during early infancy before the introduction of solids foods. The present study was a secondary analysis of mothers who completed previous infant feeding studies (n = 134) and was aimed at exploring whether maternal-reported use of FTS was associated with greater infant weight gain during the first six months postpartum and whether feeding type (exclusive breastfeeding versus exclusive formula-feeding versus mixed feeding) or bottle-feeding intensity (percent of daily feedings from a bottle) moderated this association. Both maternal-reported and observational measures of maternal and infant characteristics and their associations with the use of FTS were also explored. Individual correlations as well as multiple and logistic regressions were used to assess whether FTS predicted change in weight-for-age, weight-for-length, and/or RWG from birth to study entry. One-way ANOVA tests were used to assess the differences in use of FTS by feeding type and/or bottle-feeding intensity. Individual correlations and multiple regressions were used to assess whether maternal feeding style and/or infant temperament, clarity of cues, and/or eating behavior predicted the use of FTS. The mean age for infants was 14.8 weeks (SD = 7.1, range = 1.7 - 31.0 weeks). The results showed that the use of FTS had a significant negative association with percent of daily feedings from a bottle (r = -0.20, p = 0.021), and a significantly higher association among mothers who reported mixed feeding (M = 2.87, SD = 0.20) versus exclusive formula feeding (M = 2.20, SD = 0.20). Greater pressuring feeding, greater infant negativity, and lower infant surgency were all significant predictors for the use of FTS (p < 0.05). FTS was not significantly associated with infant weight gain during the first 6 months postpartum. Neither feeding type or bottle-feeding intensity moderated the relationship between the use of FTS and infant weight gain. Future studies would benefit from recruiting a more diverse sample population, including measures of FTS that have been validated on infants younger than 3 months, and following the infants at more frequent time points from birth to 6 months postpartum.

<p dir="ltr">The development of feeding skills is essential for infant health, growth, and family well-being. Despite the importance of this skill, relatively little is known about the development of independent solid feeding skills relative to other body systems – like vocalizations – or external factors including caregivers or the feeding environment. The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the relationship between feeding skills, vocalizations, and caregiver feeding responsiveness at the same point in 6-8-month-old infants. We conducted this study remotely in order to obtain the most accurate assessment of infant skills and include diverse infant feeding experiences within their own home environments. Twenty-five typically developing – low-risk – infants and a pilot group of ten infants at increased risk for feeding and communication disorders completed the study, along with their caregivers. Infants were categorized as “at-risk” if they spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We collected feeding data through caregiver-recorded videos of typical mealtimes, vocalization measures from daylong audio recordings, and responsiveness assessments from video-conferencing interviews with caregivers and the mealtime feeding videos. In our sample, it was feasible to use these remote data collection methods, and we obtained high inter- and intra-rater reliability for all measures (> 90%). In our preliminary study, we found that infants in the low- and at-risk groups demonstrated different oral motor feeding skills. In hierarchical regression models, the interaction between risk group and utterance duration was the most significant predictor of oral motor feeding skills, while neither vocalization measure was strongly related to eating efficiency. In the opposite direction, feeding skills were not predictive of either normalized child vocalization count or utterance duration. Relative to caregiver feeding responsiveness, we found that caregiver feeding responsivity alone did not predict feeding or vocalization measures. Responsivity in combination with weeks of feeding experience and medical risk group was related to oral motor feeding skill but not related to vocalization measures. Overall, this study provided initial evidence that feeding skills develop as a dynamic system, influenced by multiple within-child and external factors, and future research is warranted on the influence of these factors on feeding and communication skill development.</p>

Être capable d’ajuster les quantités consommées selon la densité énergétique des aliments contribue au maintien de l’équilibre de la balance énergétique. Dans un contexte de prévalence du surpoids chez l’enfant, il est crucial d’identifier les facteurs précoces susceptibles d’affecter les capacités d’ajustement énergétique. Durant toute la diversification alimentaire, les quantités ingérées, et donc les capacités d’ajustement énergétique, dépendent en partie de la qualité de l’interaction parent-enfant. Une étude épidémiologique suggère que les capacités d’ajustement énergétique se détérioreraient vers l’âge de un an. C’est aussi à cette période que survient le passage d’une alimentation spécifique bébé à une alimentation de type adulte.Aussi, dans ce travail, nous avons mis en place un suivi longitudinal afin de décrire, à l’aide d’une mesure expérimentale de compensation calorique, les changements développementaux des capacités d’ajustement énergétique entre 11 et 15 mois. Nous avons aussi exploré si certains facteurs relatifs aux caractéristiques individuelles des nourrissons, aux aliments qu’ils avaient consommés ou à l’interaction mère-nourrisson au cours du repas étaient liés aux capacités d’ajustement énergétique.Nous avons mis en évidence qu’à 11 et 15 mois les nourrissons sous-compensent leur prise énergétique à la suite de la consommation d’un premier aliment plus ou moins calorique, avec cependant de grandes différences interindividuelles. L’ajustement énergétique n’est pas meilleur si l’on considère l’ensemble des prises alimentaires au cours des 24h suivant la consommation de ce premier aliment. À 11 mois, les nourrissons ont de meilleures capacités d’ajustement énergétique lorsque, au cours du repas, la mère adapte le rythme des cuillerées à la taille des cuillerées ce qui pourrait refléter un nourrissage réceptif. À 15 mois, les nourrissons ajustent leur prise alimentaire sur des critères volumétriques plutôt que caloriques. Quel que soit l’âge, aucun lien n’a été mis en évidence entre l’expérience alimentaire des nourrissons (lactée et diversifiée) et leurs capacités d’ajustement énergétique. Concernant les changements développementaux, nous avons montré que les capacités d’ajustement énergétique se détériorent de 11 à 15 mois. Les nourrissons pour lesquels cette détérioration est plus importante sont perçus par leur mère comme étant plus ‘attirés’ par la nourriture. De plus, la détérioration des capacités d’ajustement énergétique est associée à une augmentation du z-IMC entre 11 et 15 mois et à un z-IMC plus élevé à 24 mois. Par ailleurs, plus les nourrissons sont exposés à des recettes de légumes de densité énergétique variable entre 8 et 11 mois, moins leur z-IMC est élevé à 8 mois et 11 mois. Ce travail souligne que les capacités d’ajustement énergétique sont associées à différents facteurs précoces relatifs au fonctionnement de la dyade mère-nourrisson et au statut pondéral des nourrissons. Ces résultats ouvrent un nouveau champ de recherche visant à comprendre la causalité de ces liens. In fine, cela permettrait de mieux accompagner les parents pour qu’ils adoptent des pratiques permettant le développement optimal des capacités d’ajustement énergétique de leur enfant au cours de la période clé des 1000 premiers jours. / Being able to adjust food intake according to the energy density of food is one way to self-regulate energy intake and maintain a healthy energy balance. In the context of the prevalence of overweight in children, it appears crucial to identify early factors that may affect caloric adjustment abilities. During the complementary feeding process, the amount consumed, and in turn, the caloric adjustment abilities depend in part on the quality of the caregiver-infant interaction. An epidemiological study suggests that caloric adjustment abilities might deteriorate around one year old; a time when the transition from baby-foods towards adult like foods occurs in the infant diet.In this work, we performed a laboratory-based assessment of the infants’ caloric adjustment ability by adapting the preload paradigm. By using a longitudinal approach, we first described the developmental changes in infants’ caloric adjustment ability between 11 and 15 mo. Then, we explored whether some factors related to the infants’ characteristics, the type of foods consumed or the mother-infant interaction during the meal were linked to the caloric adjustment ability.We showed that, at 11 and 15 mo, the infants under-compensated their energy intake after consuming a food preload more or less caloric. However, we observed large inter-individual variation in this ability. The level of caloric adjustment was not better when considering the total food intake during the 24 h following the food preload consumption. At 11 mo, infants had better caloric adjustment ability when the mother adapted the spoonful pace to the spoonful weight content; this dynamic during the meal could reflect a responsive feeding. At 15 mo, the infants exhibited a volumetric adjustment rather than a caloric adjustment. Regardless of the studied age, no significant links were found between the infants’ feeding experience (milk and complementary foods) and their caloric adjustment ability. Regarding the developmental changes, we observed that the infants’ caloric adjustment ability deteriorated from 11 to 15 mo. The more this deterioration, the more the infants were perceived as ‘attracted by food’ by their mothers. Moreover, the more this deterioration, the more the z-BMI increased between 11 and 15 mo, and the higher the z-BMI was at 24 mo. In addition, the more the infants were exposed to a wide range of energy density for the vegetable-based recipes between 8 and 11 mo, the lower their z-BMI was at 8 and at 11 mo. This work highlights that caloric adjustment ability is associated with various early factors related to the mother-infant dyadic functioning and the infants’ weight status. These results open up a new research field to understand the causality underpinning these links. In fine, this would allow to assist parents to support an optimal development of their infant’s caloric adjustment abilities during the key period of the first 1000 days.