Weight gain since infancy and prepubertal body dissatisfaction.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether body dissatisfaction at prepuberty is associated with preceding changes in relative weight since infancy. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study. Follow-up of weight and height from age 7 months to 8 years; evaluation of body dissatisfaction at age 8 years. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The subjects were 205 girls and 230 boys participating in a prospective randomized atherosclerosis prevention trial in Finland. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A pictorial instrument was used in measuring estimated current and desired body sizes. A difference between the 2 indicated body dissatisfaction. RESULTS: Children, particularly girls, who wished to be thinner at age 8 years had, on average, a more rapid increase in relative weight between ages 3 and 8 years compared with other children. Slopes of the average trends of change in weight differed significantly between the children wishing to be thinner, those who were satisfied with their size, and those who wished to look heavier (P = .002 in girls; P = .02 in boys). CONCLUSION: Body dissatisfaction at prepuberty may reflect changes in weight during the preceding several years.

Ideal gender identity related to parent images and locus of control: Jungian and social learning perspectives.

In this research, we wanted to clarify how gender images are different or invariant and related to parents, attributes, and the attitude of controlling life (locus of control) in two cultural contexts, Japan and Finland. For this purpose, students' ideal gender images, consisting of ideal mother, female, father and male images, and parents' similarity to the four ideal gender images were studied in 135 Japanese and 119 Finnish university students. Major findings were (a) Japanese students' ideal gender images were more stereotypic than those of Finnish students; (b) students' ideal mother image and parents' similarity to the ideal mother image were related only to their sex, which supports Jung's theory; (c) students socially learned other ideal gender images, but these did not fit with expectation from social learning theory; (d) Japanese students' mothers are models or examples of gender images, but Finnish male students did not seem to base their ideal gender images on their parents. Implication of measures was discussed.

Growth, energy intake, and meal pattern in five-year-old children considered as poor eaters.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether 5-year-old children considered poor eaters differ from their peers regarding growth, intake of energy and nutrients, or meal pattern. Study design Parental evaluations of children's (n=494) eating at age 5 years were collected using questionnaires, and energy and nutrient intakes and meal pattern of the children were assessed using 4-day food records. Weight and height were measured at birth and at ages 7 and 13 months, and 2, 3, 4, and 5 years. Of the children 30.2% (149) were poor eaters according to the parents. The rest of the sample (n=345) formed the comparison group. RESULTS: Poor eaters were on average lighter and shorter at birth (P=.026 and P=.020, respectively), and at age 5 years (P<.001 for both weight and height) than the comparison children. At age 5 years the poor eaters on average received less of their daily total energy from warm meals (P=.044) and more from snacks (P=.013) than the comparison group, but the mean daily weight-adjusted intake of energy showed no difference between the groups (P=.153). CONCLUSIONS: There appears not to be reason for serious concern about growth and diet of preschool-aged children considered as poor eaters by parents.

Body satisfaction in 8-year-old children after long-term dietary counseling in a prospective randomized atherosclerosis prevention trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether dietary counseling designed for primary prevention of atherosclerosis and given repeatedly since infancy had an effect on prepubertal children's body satisfaction. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS: At the age of 7 months, 1062 infants were randomized to an intervention group (n = 540) or a control group (n = 522). At the age of 8 years, body satisfaction of 217 children in the intervention group and 218 in the control group was evaluated.Intervention Since the children were 8 months old, families in the intervention group had regularly received individualized health education and dietary advice aimed at decreasing the children's intake of saturated fat and cholesterol. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A pictorial instrument was used in measuring estimated current and desired body sizes; a difference between the 2 indicated body dissatisfaction. Weight and height were measured. RESULTS: When adjusted for relative weight, there were no differences in the mean values of estimated current size, desired size, or body dissatisfaction between the girls in the intervention and control groups (P =.62, P =.72, and P =.39, respectively), or between the boys in the intervention and control groups (P =.21, P =.64, and P =.53, respectively). The proportions of children who were satisfied with their size, who wished to be thinner, or who wished to look heavier did not differ between the intervention and control groups in either girls (P =.65) or boys (P =.85). CONCLUSION: Long-term, individualized dietary counseling since infancy with the focus on dietary fat did not enhance body dissatisfaction or desire to be thinner in 8-year-old children.

Dietary patterns and nutrient intakes of 7-year-old children taking part in an atherosclerosis prevention project in Finland.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dietary patterns of 7-year-old children participating in an atherosclerosis prevention project and the relationship of those dietary patterns to nutrient intakes and serum cholesterol values. DESIGN: In the randomized, prospective Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) 1,062 children were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=540; low-saturated fat, low-cholesterol diet) or to a control group (n=522; unrestricted diet) at 7 months of age. SUBJECTS/SETTINGS: The intervention families received, at 6-month intervals, individualized counseling that focused on the known environmental atherosclerosis risk factors and aimed at reducing children's saturated fat and cholesterol intake. Nutrition counseling was targeted at the child but, because of the young age of the children, was given to the parents. When children were 7 years old, food and nutrient intakes of 307 intervention and 323 control children were studied using 4-day food records. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: K-means cluster analysis was used to classify children into 4 groups on the basis of similarity of food intake. Differences in nutrient intakes and serum lipid concentrations between children in the 4 food intake clusters were evaluated using Tukey's multiple comparison test. RESULTS: Intervention children dominated the bread, skim milk, and margarine cluster and the cereals, rice, and pasta cluster whereas the 1.5%-fat milk and butter cluster included mainly control children. Saturated fat intake was nearest to the recommendations, that is 11.7% and 11.9% of energy, in the bread, skim milk, and margarine cluster and the cereals, rice, and pasta cluster, respectively. Children in the bread, skim milk, and margarine cluster had 20% to 27% higher fiber intakes (P<.001) whereas children in the sugar and sweets cluster had markedly higher sugar intakes than children in other clusters (P<.001). Serum cholesterol concentrations were lower in those clusters with high dietary ratios of polyunsaturated to saturated fat. CONCLUSION: Detailed and repeated dietary counseling of parents, starting when children are aged 7 months, that aims at decreasing children's exposure to known nutrition risk factors for coronary heart disease modifies children's food patterns and nutrient intakes toward expected values.