One in five children in the United States has obesity , which is a significant predictor of chronic health problems later in life. Infants who gain excessive weight prior to their second birthday are at an increased risk of developing obesity in childhood, especially those who are encouraged to finish all of their food even after expressing fullness, according to researchers from the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences and Geisinger College of Health Sciences. The research team recently demonstrated that mothers who received responsive parenting guidance better identified and responded to their children's needs and reported fewer behaviors that could contribute to their child's risk for obesity.
The study - led by Yining Ma, nutritional sciences doctoral student, Jennifer Savage Williams, professor of nutritional sciences and director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research, and Lisa Bailey-Davis, professor of population health sciences and the director of the Center for Women's & Children's Research at Geisinger College of Health Sciences - was published in Pediatric Obesity.
"Responsive parenting helps moms and caregivers to be in tune with their baby and correctly identify their baby's needs to respond in a supportive and nurturing way," Ma said. "For new parents, recognizing signs of hunger or tiredness in their baby can be challenging. When these cues are missed or misread, it can sometimes lead to overfeeding, which may contribute to excessive weight gain."
The researchers used data from 288 mother-infant pairs from low-income households in the Women, Infants, and Children Enhancements to Early Healthy Lifestyles for Baby (WEE Baby) Care study, a clinical trial led by Savage Williams and Bailey-Davis that tested how integrated care between pediatricians and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutritionists supported educating mothers in responsive parenting.
