Infants in households with very low food security may have greater obesity risk

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/jhub-iih082820.php

News Release 28-Aug-2020
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Infants from households reporting very low "food security," a measure of access to adequate and healthy meals, tend to weigh more than those from households with relatively high food security, suggests a new study led by a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

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The reasons for the association between food insecurity and higher obesity risk are not yet understood but may be related to poor nutrition and overfeeding. The results suggest that household food insecurity may be especially hazardous for infants, given that diet and weight gain in infancy are thought to have a potentially large impact on the future risks of obesity and related health conditions.

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Most of the infants (68.6 percent) were African American, 14.9 percent were white, and 55.4 percent of the households reported annual incomes below $20,000. Benjamin-Neelon and her colleagues visited the homes of the infants when they were 3, 6, 9, and 12 months old, and interviewed the mothers by phone an additional eight times over the year.

"The findings are especially relevant today when there is such widespread food insecurity in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 crisis," says Benjamin-Neelon, PhD, JD, who also directs the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion at the Bloomberg School.

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"One possible explanation for this link is that food insecurity is associated with lower quality diets that promote obesity, although infants, especially in the first six months of life, should be consuming limited foods-mainly just human breastmilk or infant formula," Benjamin-Neelon says. "Another possibility may be related to infant feeding practices. Mothers wanting to make sure their infants are fed enough could be overfeeding or feeding in a way that overrides infant fullness cues like propping a bottle or encouraging infants to finish the bottle."

Benjamin-Neelon and colleagues found, to their surprise, that mothers' participation in either of two federal food assistance programs, WIC and SNAP, did not modify the apparent links between food insecurity and being overweight.

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