Our babies' weight gain can feel like the most important thing in those early days - we want them to be happy and healthy, after all! However, greater weight gain as an infant is a risk factor for childhood obesity, and so understanding how it works proves quite important.
Oftentimes when our babies are fussy we find ourselves reaching for the bottle, however, this may be a mistake. A new study shows that depending on your baby's personality, soothing our little ones with food could affect their later eating habits and lead to excess weight gain.
The International Journal of Obesity-published study examined data from 160 pairs of mothers and babies.
The researchers studied how mums soothed their babies at six months, and then conducted a follow-up a year later when the infants were 18 months old.
They found that certain infants whose mums turned to food more often to soothe them tended to gain more weight.
However, this effect was only found among babies with a particular temperament factor known as surgency. Infants with a surgent temperament are usually more social, active, and curious about new things around them.
One of the study's authors, Cynthia Stifter, said that soothing surgent infants with food could make them more likely to eat out of want rather than need later in life.
"Surgent children tend to have greater reward sensitivity than other kids - and thus greater sensitivity in the dopamine area of the brain," Cynthia, who is also a professor of human development and psychology, told Science Daily.
"So if food, which is highly rewarding, lights up that area quickly and intensely, they may make a stronger connection between food and feeling good, causing them to seek out food more often in the future."
These findings from Kameron Moding and Cynthia build upon previous research that has found a connection between surgent temperament and higher body mass index (and greater weight gain).
Cynthia noted that this study also shows how an infant's temperament can affect their mum and dad's parenting style.
"When babies respond to things in a certain way, parents pick up on that," Cynthia explained.
"So in many ways, the baby's behaviour is influencing the parents' behaviour. If a parent wants to stop their child from crying, and they know that food will do that, they may use that strategy, particularly if other methods are not working."
Using food as a reward when a baby is upset can contribute to later overeating, especially for these surgent babies, Cynthia observed. She also stated that it could put the child at risk for developing obesity later in life.
She said she hopes the study's results can inform programmes for educating parents on their child's temperament and how temperament can affect other aspects of life for both parent and child.
"I'd also like to see these programmes teach parents about hunger cues so they know when their babies are hungry, so as to avoid using food to soothe their babies when they are not hungry," Cynthia said.
What do you think of this study's findings, mums?
