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Early life exposures are associated with appetitive traits in infancy: findings from the BiTwin cohort

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the stability of appetitive traits during infancy and their association with early life exposures.

Methods

Participants were from the BiTwin birth cohort (longitudinal study of Portuguese infants). Appetitive traits at 3 months were measured using the Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (n = 347) and at 12 months with the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire for toddlers (n = 325). Stability was assessed with multi-level models. The association of early life exposures (weight for gestational age, mode of feeding, prematurity, smoking during pregnancy, maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, and diabetes mellitus diagnosis) with infant appetitive traits was estimated by multivariable linear regression models.

Results

Appetite traits showed limited stability (ICCs: 0.25–0.34). Associations with early life exposures varied by age. At 3 months, infants of mothers with higher pre-pregnancy BMI and excessive gestational weight gain had low Satiety Responsiveness. In contrast, infants small for gestational age scored high in this trait (β̂ = 0.241; 95% CI 0.056–0.425). Exclusively formula-fed infants presented weak food approach traits at this age, namely low Enjoyment of Food (β̂ = − 0.145; 95% CI − 0.270 to − 0.019) and Food Responsiveness (β̂ = − 0.415; 95% CI − 0.618 to − 0.212). At 12 months, infants who were small for gestational age had low Food Responsiveness (β̂ = − 0.297; 95% CI − 0.523 to − 0.072), in contrast, infants of mothers who gained excessive gestational weight had high scores in this trait. Formula feeding was related to rapid eating (Slowness in Eating: β̂ = − 0.252; 95% CI 0.451 to − 0.054).

Conclusion

Early life exposures may play a role in the development of infants' appetitive traits, which then change during the first year of life. Interventions focussed on maternal and infant health may have the potential to shape appetite in infancy.

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Data availability

Data described in the manuscript will be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

Change history

  • 20 November 2022

    Reference 48 was wrongly cited in the reference list and it has been corrected

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their special gratitude to all the families enrolled in BiTwin Cohort for their kindness, all members of the research team, participating hospitals, and their staff for their help and support.

Funding

The BiTwin cohort study was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No. 603946 (FP7-2013, HEALS project- ‘Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Surveys’). This study was supported by FEDER from the Operational Programme Factors of Competitiveness – COMPETE and through national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science) namely under the projects: “Appetite regulation and obesity in childhood: a comprehensive approach towards understanding genetic and behavioural influences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030334; PTDC/SAUEPI/30334/2017); and “Appetite and adiposity-evidence for gene-environment interplay in children” (IF/01350/2015), through an Investigator Contract (IF/01350/2015–Andreia Oliveira), and a PhD. Grant (2021.05970.BD–Alexandra Costa) co-funded by the FSE Programme. It had support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Epidemiology Research Unit (EPI-Unit: UIDB/04750/2020; POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862), and the Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health (ITR: LA/P/0064/2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EPIUnit-Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto [Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto], Rua das Taipas nº135, 4050-600, Porto, Portugal

    Alexandra Costa, Sarah Warkentin, Cláudia Ribeiro, Milton Severo, Elisabete Ramos & Andreia Oliveira

  2. Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional (ITR) [Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health], Rua das Taipas nº135, 4050-600, Porto, Portugal

    Alexandra Costa, Sarah Warkentin, Cláudia Ribeiro, Milton Severo, Elisabete Ramos & Andreia Oliveira

  3. Departamento de Ciências da Saúde Pública e Forenses e Educação Médica da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319, Porto, Portugal

    Milton Severo, Elisabete Ramos & Andreia Oliveira

  4. School of Psychology, University of Leeds, University Rd, Woodhouse, LS2 9JU, Leeds, UK

    Marion Hetherington

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  1. Alexandra Costa
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  3. Cláudia Ribeiro
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  4. Milton Severo
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Contributions

AC wrote the paper and analysed data; MS: analysed data and contributed to the interpretation of the analyses; SH, CR, ER, and MH critically reviewed the manuscript. AO: designed research and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors were involved in writing the paper and had final approval of the submitted and published versions.

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Correspondence to Andreia Oliveira.

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Costa, A., Warkentin, S., Ribeiro, C. et al. Early life exposures are associated with appetitive traits in infancy: findings from the BiTwin cohort. Eur J Nutr 62, 757–769 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-03026-3

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