Several COPT fellows attended Obesity Week 2015, the Annual Meeting of the Obesity Society, in Los Angeles, California from November 2 – November 7, 2015. Each student gave us a recap and reflection on her experience. We will be featuring one student per post as part of this series.
Chelsea Rose, PhD
Q: What was the title of your presentation?
A: Do differences between primiparous and multiparous mothers in feeding practices, perceptions of infant fussiness, and infant sleep place firstborns at a greater risk for obesity?
Q: What were the main points of your presentation?
A: The aim of this study was to examine differences between primiparous (first-time) mothers and multiparous mothers (mothers who have had at least one previous live birth) in a number of factors related to obesity risk, i.e. maternal feeding practices and infant sleep. Primiparous mothers are more likely to report their infant was fussy and to engage in infant feeding practices inconsistent with current guidance and firstborns surpassed later-born children in weight-for-age z-scores after 7 months. Primiparous mothers may benefit from targeted interventions to encourage responsive, age-appropriate feeding practices.
Q: What is something you learned while at Obesity Week 2015?
A: The most memorable talk for me this year was Shari Barkin’s talk about her community based intervention “Salud con la Familia (Health with the family).” I was impressed by the a novel, personalized approach used in the intervention, and how engaging she was as a speaker. In my work I focused more of my research on family or school-based interventions. After Dr. Barkin’s presentation, I am much more interested in interventions at the community level. The application of tailored community based approaches such as this one shows promise as an effective way to provide personalized interventions to specific target populations, such as Latino families.
Q: How do you hope your general program of research will contribute to the field of obesity prevention?
A: Overall, I hope my research encourages further research into other differences between the needs of first-time and multiparous mothers as very little research in the feeding domain has examined maternal parity as a predictor differences in maternal feeding practices yet a wide body of research has demonstrated a higher risk of developing obesity among firstborns (children of first-time mothers).