Peer-reviewed article
The bidirectional relationship between growth and appetite regulation in the first year of life
Demetriou C, Singhal A, Lanigan J, Mahmood A, Vichas C et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study followed 450 healthy infants for their first year to understand how early weight gain and appetite regulation influence each other. Infants with higher satiety responsiveness (feeling full easily) at 4 weeks gained weight more slowly later, while those with higher food responsiveness (responding to food cues) gained weight faster. Conversely, faster weight gain between 4 weeks and 6 months was linked to increased appetite traits at 12 months. The findings suggest that rapid early weight gain may increase appetite regulation problems, which could increase obesity risk later in childhood.
Key points
- Satiety responsiveness at 4 weeks was associated with slower weight gain from 4 weeks to 12 months (β: -0.16)
- Food responsiveness at 4 weeks was associated with faster weight gain from 4 weeks to 12 months (β: 0.10)
- Faster weight gain between 4-6 weeks was associated with higher enjoyment of food (β: 0.10) and food responsiveness (β: 0.16) at 12 months
- Faster weight gain between 6-12 months was inversely associated with satiety responsiveness at 12 months (β: -0.18)
- The results support the growth acceleration hypothesis, where rapid early weight gain may lead to obesity through up-regulation of appetite traits
Limitations
The study does not report which country or countries the cohort was from, limiting understanding of generalizability to different populations. The study is observational and cannot establish causation, only associations.
Abstract
Abstract Childhood obesity is a public health crisis. Even though appetite traits in infancy were associated with childhood adiposity, whether early weight gain can influence later appetite has not been researched. Our aim was to prospectively examine the bidirectional association between growth and appetite traits during the first year of life. We followed up 450 healthy term infants for 12 months (m). Appetite traits at 4 weeks (wk), 6m and 12m were assessed using the Baby and Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaires. Infant feeding, anthropometric, socioeconomic and demographic data were also collected. Infant weight-for-age z-scores (WFAZ) were calculated using the WHO 2006 growth reference. Growth was assessed as conditional WFAZ change (cWFAZc) by saving the residuals from linear regression models of WFAZ at each successive time point versus WFAZ at the earlier time point. Multivariable linear regression was used to analyse bidirectional associations between cWFAZc (0-4wk, 4wk-6m, 6-12m) and appetite traits Enjoyment of Food (EF), Food Responsiveness (FR), Satiety Responsiveness (SR) and Slowness in Eating (SE) at 4wk, 6m and 12m. All models were adjusted for relevant confounders. At 4wk, SR score was associated with lower (β:-0.16; 95% CI:-0.28,-0.03), and FR score with higher (β:0.10; 95% CI:0.01,0.19) cWFAZc from 4wk to 12m. SR score at 6m was inversely associated with cWFAZc from 6-12m (β:-0.09; 95% CI:-0.16,-0.01). Conversely, higher cWFAZc between 4wk-6m was associated with higher EF (β:0.10; 95% CI:0.01,0.19) and FR (β:0.16; 95% CI:0.04,0.29) scores at 12m. cWFAZc between 6m-12m was inversely associated with SR at 12m (β:-0.18; 95% CI:-0.35,-0.01). Our results suggest that the growth acceleration hypothesis, where faster growth in infancy leads to later obesity, may be mediated by an up-regulation of appetite traits at 12m. This highlights the public health importance of avoiding growth acceleration in infancy as a way to curb the childhood obesity epidemic. Key messages • Weight gain in early infancy impacts appetite regulation in the first year of life and up-regulation of appetite traits at 12 months predisposes to childhood obesity. • Avoiding growth acceleration in infancy can decrease the risk for childhood obesity.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Prospective observation and measurement of infant growth and appetite traits over 12 months with no intervention applied
- Population
- 450 healthy term infants followed for 12 months with appetite assessments at 4 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months
Key finding
Satiety responsiveness at 4 weeks predicted slower weight gain through 12 months (β: -0.16, 95% CI: -0.28, -0.03)