Maternal Influences on Child Feeding

Maternal feeding practices appear to influence children's eating habits and thereby children's weight. Maternal obesity is one of the greatest risk factors for a child's development of obesity. Researchers have proposed a number of explanations to account for this strong link. Association between child's and mother's weight may be explained through a shared genetic predisposition to a certain body structure or eating style, hormonal differences transmitted during pregnancy, or modeling of eating behavior.

Additionally, many propose that mothers have a direct influence on their children's eating habits through [Page 442]their feeding practices. Mothers are typically the primary caregivers and have traditionally assumed the greatest responsibility for feeding of a child. Thus, it would appear that they, more than any other person, would have a direct influence on a child's diet. This assumption is suggested by the fact that most studies on the association between parental feeding style and children's eating behavior and/or weight have been conducted solely or primarily on mother–child pairs.

Mothers tend to be more restrictive of daughter's intake if they are restrictive with their own intake, or if the daughter is overweight.

Mothers first assume responsibility for the feeding of their child during pregnancy. Maternal intake directly affects the nutrition received by the fetus in utero. Studies have demonstrated that a mother's intake during this time may have long-lasting effects. For instance, children are more likely to be accepting of a flavor if the mother had consumed foods and/or drinks of this flavor during pregnancy. The assumption is that the flavor and/or smell of the mother's diet is transmitted a child. Research has in fact demonstrated that the smell of some foods, such as garlic, can be detected in the amniotic fluid.

During infancy, the mother typically controls the majority, if not all, of the feeding experiences, particularly if a child is breastfed. A number of studies have investigated the effect of breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding. While the research is somewhat mixed, it does seem to suggest that breastfeeding provides at least a modest degree of protection against childhood overweight. Studies indicate that breast- and bottle-fed infants are born at similar weights; however, bottle-fed infants tend to gain more weight throughout early childhood. As a result, research demonstrated that around age 5, bottle-fed children present with significantly higher body mass index (BMI), adiposity, and prevalence of overweight.

There may be a number of explanations for this phenomenon. Mothers who breast-feed may be more health conscious and therefore more likely to promote healthy eating behavior in children. Breast-feeding may transmit certain hormones or macronutrients which confer protection against the development of obesity. Further, breastfeeding may allow a child to respond to his or her own hunger and satiety cues in order to regulate energy intake. Bottle-feeding is generally more controlled by the mother and influenced more by external cues (i.e., the amount of formula in the bottle), which may promote eating past the point of satiety. Children who are breastfed also tend to show greater preference for flavors they have been exposed to through their mother's diet while breast-feeding and are more accepting of a range of novel flavors later in childhood.

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