Search

Using a family systems model and a qualitative research approach, the transcripts of interviews of mothers of low birth weight preterm infants were analyzed to provide dietitians with valuable insights into the decision making practices of families. Analysis of the interviews showed that concerns about the nutritional care of their infants influenced the mothers' perceptions of medical care in the infants' first year of life. Families identified a need for more information regarding the nutritional care of their preterm infants, particularly following discharge from the hospital. Dietitians with supplemental training in child development are uniquely qualified to meet this need. Copyright © 2000 by Aspen Publishers, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at overweight and obese children compared three treatments. Two psychoeducation interventions for parents and children were conducted: Family Lifestyle (FL) focused on food and physical activity; Family Dynamics (FD) added parenting and healthy emotion management. A third Peer Group (PG) intervention taught social acceptance to children. Crossing interventions yielded four conditions: FL, FL + PG, FL + FD, and FL + FD + PG-compared with the control. Longitudinal BMI data were collected to determine if family- and peer-based psychosocial components enhanced the Family Lifestyle approach. Participants were 1st graders with BMI%ile >75 ( n = 538: 278 boys, 260 girls). Schools were randomly assigned to condition after stratifying for community size and percent American Indian. Anthropometric data were collected pre- and post-intervention in 1st grade and annually through 4th grade. Using a two-level random intercept growth model, intervention status predicted differences in growth in BMI or BMI-M% over three years. Children with obesity who received the FL + FD + PG intervention had lower BMI gains compared to controls for both raw BMI (B = -0.05) and BMI-M% (B = -2.36). Interventions to simultaneously improve parent, child, and peer-group behaviors related to physical and socioemotional health offer promise for long-term positive impact on child obesity.

Iodine deficiency is one of the major causes of brain damage in childhood. However, iodine supplementation during early pregnancy and lactation can prevent the ill effects of iodine deficiency. This study evaluated maternal and infant thyroid function and infant visual information processing (VIP) in the context of maternal iodine supplementation. A community-based, randomized, supplementation trial was conducted. Mother infant dyads (n = 106) were enrolled within the first 10 days after delivery to participate in this study. Mothers were randomly assigned either to receive a potassium iodide capsule (225 μg iodine) daily for 26 weeks or iodized salt weekly for 26 weeks. Maternal thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin (Tg), urinary iodine concentration (UIC), breast milk iodine concentration (BMIC) and infant T4, TSH, UIC and VIP were measured as outcome variables. At baseline, neither mothers nor infants in the two groups were significantly different in any of the biomarkers or anthropometric measurements. Maternal TSH and goiter prevalence significantly decreased following iodine supplementation. The percentage of infants who preferentially remembered the familiar face was 26% in the capsule and 51% in the I-salt groups. Infant sex, length for age Z score, BMIC, maternal education and household food security were strong predictors of novelty quotient. In conclusion supplementation daily for six months with an iodine capsule or the use of appropriately iodized salt for an equivalent time was sufficient to reduce goiter and TSH in lactating women. Higher BMIC and LAZ as well as better household food security, maternal education, and male sex predicted higher novelty quotient scores in the VIP paradigm., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background and Objectives: Mental contamination is the psychological sense of internal dirtiness that arises in the absence of physical contact with a perceived contaminant. Mental contamination can be evoked through imagining perpetrating a moral transgression. This study experimentally evoked mental contamination by asking men to imagine perpetrating a non-consensual kiss. It explored whether reducing sense of personal responsibility for the kiss moderated the mental contamination effect., Methods: Male students (N = 60) imagined giving either a consensual or non-consensual kiss. Personal responsibility for the kiss was manipulated in one of two non-consensual kiss conditions by way of the inclusion of social influence information. Feelings of mental contamination were assessed by self-report and through a behavioural index., Results: Mental contamination was successfully induced in the two non-consensual kiss conditions. There was evidence to support the hypothesis that reducing personal responsibility might moderate specific components of mental contamination (shame, dirtiness and urge to cleanse). The effect of responsibility modification was evident in the self-report measures, but not in the behavioural index., Limitations: The sample comprised male university students which limits generalizability of the findings. The behavioural assessment of mental contamination was limited to a proxy measure., Conclusions: Imagined moral violations are associated with increases in indices of mental contamination. Further research should investigate whether feelings of shame, dirtiness and urge to cleanse are particularly responsive to responsibility modifications., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study examined relations between multiple measures of maternal iron status assessed 3 months post-partum, and infant processing speed (longest look during visual habituation), memory (novelty preference), attention (heart rate changes), and neural response variability (in auditory event-related potentials) at 3 and 9 months. Plasma iron was associated with 9-month novelty preference and longest look, and developmental changes in longest look. Hemoglobin predicted sustained attention, and both plasma iron and soluble transferrin receptors predicted neural response variability at 9 months. Improved maternal iron appears to have a positive impact on infant cognitive development even in a well-nourished, low-risk sample.

Background: Home-exercise is commonly prescribed for rehabilitation of the shoulder following injury. There is a lack of technology available to monitor if the patient performs the exercises as prescribed., Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of using three dimensional (3D) gyroscope data recorded with the Bandcizer™ sensor to differentiate between three elastic band exercises performed in the shoulder joint: abduction, flexion, and external rotation., Design: Concurrent validity study., Methods: This study was performed over two phases. In the first phase, 20 subjects performed three sets of 10 of shoulder abduction, external rotation and flexion exercises with a Thera-Band mounted with a Bandcizer, while supervised by a physical therapist. The Bandcizer has an inbuilt three-dimensional gyroscope, capable of measuring angular rotation. Gyroscope data were analyzed in Matlab, and a one-way ANOVA was used to test for significant differences between each of the three exercises. An algorithm was then created in Matlab based on the exercise-data from the gyroscope, to enable differentiation between the three shoulder exercises. Twenty new subjects were then recruited to cross-validate the algorithm and investigate if the algorithm could differentiate between the three different shoulder exercises., Results: A blinded assessor using the Matlab algorithm could correctly identify 56 out of 60 exercise sets. The kappa agreement for the three exercises ranged between 0.86-0.91., Conclusion: The ability to differentiate between the home exercises performed by patients after shoulder injury has great implications for future clinical practice and research. When home exercises are the treatments-of-choice, clinicians will be able to quantify if the patient performed the exercise as intended. Further research should be aimed at investigating the feasibility of using the Bandcizer™ in a home-based environment., Word Count: 2429., Level of Evidence: 2.

Background: As breastfeeding duration increases, it is important to understand diets of breastfeeding women and other factors salient to maternal/offspring health, including stress. It is important to further consider sociodemographic factors, given their associations with nutritional deficiencies and perceived stress., Objective: We cross-sectionally compared breastfeeding women's dietary intakes from a food frequency questionnaire (assessing from pregnancy through 3 months postpartum) with Estimated Average Requirements (EARs). We hypothesized that dietary intake was related to sociodemographic variables and parenting stress., Design: We examined a cohort of predominately breastfeeding women. Food frequency questionnaire results were compared with EARs, the Parenting Stress Index: Short Form, and a demographic questionnaire., Participants/setting: Participants included 101 women (of 289 recruited) who breastfed singleton, full-term infants for the first 3 months while using <28 oz formula/wk. The study included community recruitment in rural Oklahoma from 2008 to 2012., Statistical Analyses: Mean and standard deviation or frequencies were reported. One-sample t tests compared EARs with mean dietary intakes over the past 12 months. Pearson correlations and one-way analyses of variance explored relationships among dietary, sociodemographic, and stress variables., Results: Twenty-two percent of women did not meet EAR minimum energy recommendations and >40% did not meet protein recommendations. Despite widespread supplement use, some consumed less than the EAR for vitamin E (35%), calcium (22%), and vitamin C (19%). Carbohydrate consumption was positively related to the difficult child scale (r=0.19; P=0.05). Dietary riboflavin (r=-0.19; P=0.05) and vitamin D intake (r=-0.19; P=0.05) were negatively related to the parent-child dysfunction scale., Conclusions: Despite efforts to enhance education and counseling regarding adequate perinatal nutrition-related practices, even well-educated women may not meet EARs. This poor dietary intake may be associated with parenting stress and have potential long-term implications for child health., (Copyright © 2015 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Several recent studies have supported relations between infant behaviour (alertness and responsiveness) and nutrition in addition to investigating infant behaviour within the context of changes in iron status over time. Existing research is typically limited to the investigation of the effects of a single vitamin or mineral, and no studies have been found that examined the influence that early alertness and responsiveness have on growth in early infancy, despite the fact that relations between behaviour and nutritional status may be bidirectional. The current study used a sample of Ethiopian infants and investigated anthropometrics, haemoglobin, the frequency of alertness and the frequency of responsiveness at 6 and 9 months of age. Six-month weight-for-age predicted 9-month frequency of alertness, while 6-month haemoglobin predicted 9-month frequency of responsiveness. Compared with responsive infants, non-responsive infants at 6 months remained more non-responsive at 9 months, although weight-for-age for both groups converged at 9 months. Results support relations between nutrition and behaviour (alertness and responsiveness) and provide evidence of a potentially useful tool (the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery) that was adapted to evaluate these relations in Ethiopia., (© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Theoretical models linking maternal nutrition, depressive symptomatology, and parenting are underdeveloped. However, existing literature suggests that iron status and depressive symptomatology interact in relation to problematic parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive). Therefore, in the current study the authors investigate these interactive relations in a sample of breastfeeding mothers (n = 105) interviewed at three months postpartum. Participants completed questionnaires (from December 2008 to January 2011) regarding their depressive symptomatology and parenting styles. Iron status (i.e., hemoglobin, soluble transferrin receptors, and serum ferritin concentrations) was assessed from blood samples. Significant interactions were found between iron status and depressive symptomatology in relation to authoritarian parenting style (low warmth, high punishment and directiveness). For those women with hemoglobin below 14.00 g/dL, depressive symptomatology was positively related to authoritarian parenting style (p < 0.001). Thus, screening for poor iron status and depressive sympatomology in postpartum women may help to identify those at risk for problematic parenting. Dietary interventions may help to eliminate relations between depressive symptoms and problematic parenting.

The aim of the present study was to examine the relations of parenting style, parent response to negative child emotion, and family emotional expressiveness and support to child emotional eating. Mothers (N=450) completed questionnaires and their 6-8-year-old children (N=450) were interviewed. Results showed that emotional eating was negatively predicted by authoritative parenting style and family open expression of affection and emotion, and positively predicted by parent minimizing response to child negative emotion. Results suggest the need for early prevention/intervention efforts directed to these parenting and family variables., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The purpose of the study was to test the moderating influence of two risk factors, maternal depression and socio-economic status (SES), on the association between authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and child obesity., Design: Correlational, cross-sectional study. Parenting style was measured with the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). Maternal depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). BMI-for-age percentile was used to categorize children by weight status (children with BMI-for-age > or = 95th percentile were classified as obese). SES was computed from parent education and occupational status using the four-factor Hollingshead index., Setting: Rural public schools in a mid-western state in the USA., Subjects: One hundred and seventy-six mothers of first-grade children (ninety-one boys, eighty-five girls) enrolled in rural public schools., Results: Both maternal depression and SES were found to moderate the permissive parenting style/child obesity association, but not the authoritarian/child obesity association. For depressed mothers, but not for non-depressed mothers, more permissive parenting was predictive of child obesity. Similarly more permissive parenting was predictive of child obesity among higher SES mothers, but not for lower SES mothers., Conclusions: Maternal depression and SES interact with permissive parenting style to predict child obesity. Future research should examine the relationship among these variables using a longitudinal design.

The relation between zinc status and cognitive function was examined in a cross-sectional study in the Sidama area of Southern Ethiopia. Pregnant women >24 weeks of gestation from three adjacent rural villages volunteered to participate. Mean (s.d.) plasma zinc of 99 women was 6.97 (1.07) mumol/l (below the cutoff of 7.6 mumol/l indicative of zinc deficiency at this stage of gestation). The Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) test was administered individually. Scores for the Raven's scale A, which is the simplest scale, ranged from 4 to 10 of a possible 12. Women with plasma zinc <7.6 mumol/l had significantly lower Raven's CPM scale A scores than women with plasma zinc concentrations >7.6 mumol/l. Plasma zinc and maternal age and education predicted 17% of the variation in Raven's CPM scale A scores. We conclude that zinc deficiency is a major factor affecting cognition in these pregnant women.

This study examined relations of blood lead < 10 microg/dL, iron, zinc, and parenting to Head Start children's (N = 112) scores on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III) and McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). Venous whole blood and plasma samples were analyzed for lead and zinc by ICP-MS and iron status was assessed by serum transferrin receptors. Hierarchical regressions revealed significant effects of lead on MSCA perceptual scores and iron on PPVT-III and MSCA verbal scores. Children with lead > 2.5 microg/dL had significantly lower MSCA perceptual scores than children < 2.5 microg/dL. Permissive parenting significantly exacerbated negative effects of higher lead or lower iron on children's perceptual or verbal scores, respectively.

Background: Our goal was to identify how parental feeding practices from the nutrition literature link to general parenting styles from the child development literature to understand how to target parenting practices to increase effectiveness of interventions. Stand-alone parental feeding practices could be targeted independently. However, parental feeding practices linked to parenting styles require interventions treating underlying family dynamics as a whole., Objective: To predict parenting styles from feeding practices and to test three hypotheses: restriction and pressure to eat are positively related whereas responsibility, monitoring, modeling, and encouraging are negatively related to an authoritarian parenting style; responsibility, monitoring, modeling, and encouraging are positively related whereas restriction and pressure to eat are negatively related to an authoritative parenting style; a permissive parenting style is negatively linked with all six feeding practices., Design: Baseline data of a randomized-controlled intervention study., Subjects/setting: Two hundred thirty-nine parents (93.5% mothers) of first-grade children (134 boys, 105 girls) enrolled in rural public schools., Measures: Parental responses to encouraging and modeling questionnaires and the Child Feeding Questionnaire, as well as parenting styles measured by the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire., Statistical Analyses: Correlation and regression analyses., Results: Feeding practices explained 21%, 15%, and 8% of the variance in authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting, respectively. Restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring (negative) significantly predicted an authoritarian style (Hypothesis 1); responsibility, restriction (negative), monitoring, and modeling predicted an authoritative style (Hypothesis 2); and modeling (negative) and restriction significantly predicted a permissive style (Hypothesis 3)., Conclusions: Parental feeding practices with young children predict general parenting styles. Interventions that fail to address underlying parenting styles are not likely to be successful.

Objective: To evaluate relations among measures of iron and zinc status, C-reactive protein (CRP), and leukocytes in low-income children participating in the Head Start program., Design: Cross-sectional correlational study with samples collected at Head Start centers in May 2003., Subjects/setting: Forty-seven children (aged 3 to 5 years) attending Head Start centers in three rural communities., Measures: Zinc, ferritin, CRP, and complete blood count were analyzed in nonfasting blood samples., Statistical Analyses: Correlations were computed among leukocyte levels, CRP levels, and measures of micronutrient status. Children having two abnormal measures (ie, leukocytes and CRP) were compared by univariate analysis of variance with children having zero or one abnormal measure., Results: Most (72%) of the children had elevated CRP levels. Four percent were anemic (hemoglobin<11.0 g/dL [<110 g/L]); 11% had low iron stores (serum ferritin

Purpose: To determine red blood cell (RBC) folate and serum vitamin B12 levels in children with sickle cell disease, SS-type, and to evaluate the associations of these nutrient levels with growth and hematologic parameters., Patients and Methods: Subjects enrolled in this prospective, cross-sectional study were recruited from one tertiary care setting. Complete blood counts, measurement of red blood cell (RBC) folate and serum vitamin B12, anthropometric measures (height, weight, skinfold measurements), pubertal status, and 24-hour dietary recalls were obtained from 70 patients ages 1 to 19 years., Results: Low RBC folate levels were found in 15% of the children. Fifty-seven percent of the sample had inadequate dietary folate intake. Three percent of the children had low serum vitamin B12 levels. All children and adolescents sampled had adequate dietary intake of vitamin B12. Both RBC folate (P = 0.01) and serum vitamin B12 levels (P < 0.01) decreased with increasing age., Conclusions: More than half of the subjects had inadequate intake of folate from food, and despite daily folate supplementation, 15% had low RBC folate levels. Low serum vitamin B12 levels were rare, and dietary vitamin B12 intake was adequate. Additional research is needed to explore the effects of improved folate status, the need for folate supplementation, and the relationship of folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine levels and the risk for vascular damage and stroke in children with sickle cell disease.

The use of a gamma radiation process for the elimination of Salmonella from frozen meat is considered with particular reference to the treatment of boned-out horsemeat and kangaroo meat imported into the UK and intended for use as pet meat.Examination of dose/survival curves produced for several serotypes of Salmonella in frozen meat shows that a radiation dose of 0.6 Mrad. will reduce a population by at least a factor of 10(5). The influence on the radiation resistance of salmonellas of such factors as preirradiation growth in the meat and temperature during irradiation have been examined and considered. It is also demonstrated with both preinoculated and naturally contaminated meat that postirradiation storage in the frozen state does not lead to the revival of irradiated salmonellas.The properties of Salmonella survivors deliberately produced in meat using conditions of irradiation designed to simulate a commercial process are studied after six recycling treatments through the process. There were no important changes in characteristics normally used for identification of Salmonella but radiation resistance was lowered. Survivors grown in situ in meat after irradiation showed an abnormally long lag phase, and removal of competitive microflora in meat by the radiation treatment can influence the growth of salmonellas.