Infant Feeding and Obesity
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 March 2025 | Viewed by 78
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Interests: nutrition and child development; early child development; parenting interventions; nurturing care; food insecurity; obesity
Interests: food and nutrition security; infant feeding; health disparities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Childhood overweight and obesity are global concerns that can amplify health disparities by increasing children’s risk for diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and other health conditions, as well as stigma and psychosocial problems. Obesity prevention and treatment trials introduced during school-age have had limited sustainable impact, resulting in recommendations that health promotion and obesity prevention be initiated during infancy.
Growth patterns established during infancy are foundational for children’s subsequent growth and development. Infants who experience rapid weight gain are at elevated risk for lifelong overweight and obesity. Recommendations for infant feeding based on the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans include breast milk for the first 6 months, followed by the introduction of complementary feeding at approximately 6 months and continuation of breast milk, in a nurturant context that is responsive to infants’ cues of hunger and satiety. Throughout the world, modifiable conditions, including political, environmental, economic, and family may either challenge or promote optimal infant feeding. This special issue on Infant Feeding and Obesity welcomes a wide variety of papers that incorporate the contextual aspects of infant feeding related to obesity, including both food and feeding behavior, and including, but not limited to the following:
- Determinants of early weight gain;
- Observational or intervention design;
- Quantitative or qualitative methods;
- Breast milk: from the breast vs from the bottle;
- Breast milk vs formula;
- Infant feeding and policy implications;
- Infant feeding and child care centers;
- National and global studies;
- Well-designed implementation studies, regardless of impact;
- Cross sectional and longitudinal designs;
- Social and cultural aspects of infant food and feeding practices;
- Infant feeding and father perspectives and influences;
- Infant feeding decisions and food companies;
- Infant feeding and maternal health and well-being;
- Infant feeding and infant health and development.
Prof. Dr. Maureen M. Black
Dr. Jigna M. Dharod
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- milk-feeding
- complementary foods
- feeding styles
- self-regulation
- growth
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