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Background: Little is known about the normal eating time periods in adolescents with obesity and how these patterns change throughout development. As the obesity epidemic continues to rise in adolescence, it becomes imperative to understand developmentally appropriate eating behaviours and to create weight management strategies that build on those innate patterns and preferences. The purpose of this study was to determine the most common habitual eating windows observed in adolescents with obesity., Methods: Participants were 101 Hispanic adolescents (mean age 14.8 ± 2.1 years; 48 male/53 female) with obesity (BMI ≥95th percentile) who were recruited as part of a larger clinical trial. Dietary intake and meal timing was determined using multiple pass 24-hours recalls. Histograms were utilized to determine the natural distribution of percent consumption of total kilocalories, carbohydrates and added sugar per hour., Results: The majority of total kilocalories (65.4%), carbohydrates (65.3%) and added sugar (59.1%) occurred between 11:00 and 19:00. Adolescents were 2.5 to 2.9 times more likely to consume kilocalories, carbohydrates, and added sugar during the 8-hour window between 11:00 am and 19:00 pm than other time windows examined (all P < .001). The consumption of these calories did not differ between weekdays and weekend (P > .05) or by sex., Conclusions: In this cohort, more than 60% of calories, carbohydrates and added sugar were consumed between 11:00 am and 19:00 pm, which is concordant with an afternoon/evening chronotype that is common in adolescents. Our findings support this 8-hour period as a practical window for weight loss interventions that target pre-specified eating periods in this population., (© 2020 World Obesity Federation.)

Background: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are naturally occurring glycans in human breast milk that act as prebiotics in the infant gut. Prebiotics have been demonstrated to suppress appetite in both adults and children. Therefore, HMOs may affect infant eating behaviour., Objective: To determine if HMOs in breast milk are associated with eating behaviour in Hispanic infants., Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of a prospective cohort of Hispanic mother-infant dyads (1-month, n = 157; 6-months, n = 69). Breast milk samples were screened for 19 HMOs using high pressure liquid chromatography, and eating behaviour was assessed using the Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (BEBQ). We conducted multiple linear regressions to examine associations between HMOs and BEBQ scores, adjusted for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, infant sex, birthweight, delivery mode and number of breastfeedings per day. We stratified by HMO secretor status-a genetic determinant of the types of HMOs produced., Results: At 1 month, LNnT (lacto-N-neotetraose; P = .04) was negatively associated with food responsiveness in the total sample, while DFLNT (difucosyllacto-N-tetrose; P = .03) and DSLNT (disialyl-LNT; P = .04) were negatively associated with food responsiveness in secretors only. At 6 months, LSTc (sialyllacto-N-tetraose c; P = .01), FLNH (fucosyllacto-N-hexaose; P = .03), LNH (lacto-N-hexaose; P = .006) and DSLNH (disialyllacto-N-hexaose; P = .05) were positively associated with food responsiveness in both the total sample and secretors only., Conclusions: We found several HMOs that were both positively and negatively associated with infant food responsiveness, which is a measure of drive to eat., (© 2020 World Obesity Federation.)

Background: It is unknown to what extent higher maternal blood pressure (BP) in early postpartum impacts the relationship between higher maternal weight status and greater infant weight gain in early postpartum., Objective: To evaluate the mediating role of higher maternal BP at 1 month postpartum on the association between higher maternal weight status at 1 month postpartum and greater infant weight gain over 6 months postpartum., Methods: Participants were 169 Hispanic mother-infant pairs. Maternal body mass index (BMI) and BP were assessed at 1 month postpartum. Infant weight was measured at 1 and 6 months postpartum to calculate weight-for-age z scores (WAZ). Multiple linear regression models were used for prediction, and Sobel test was used to determine mediation., Results: Controlling for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, age, delivery mode, infant sex, and infant birth weight revealed that both maternal BMI (β = .29) and BP (β = .32) predicted infant WAZ gain (both P ≤ .03). However, the relationship between infant WAZ gain and maternal BMI was no longer significant after further adjustment for maternal BP, which remained significant (P < .05). Maternal BP explained 23.6% (Sobel T = 2.01) of the association between maternal BMI at 1 month and infant WAZ gain over 6 months., Conclusion: Our data suggest that higher maternal weight status at 1 month postpartum is related to greater infant weight gain over 6 months postpartum, and this relationship is mediated by higher maternal BP at 1 month postpartum., (© 2019 World Obesity Federation.)