The effects of birth weight on child's nutrition style in children with low birth weight

Appetite is an important factor which has an impact on the child's eating. During the childhood phase, lack of appetite is associated with growth retardation and excess appetite is associated with extreme weight gain. The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between the birth weight and age and the appetite status, which can affect the nutritional behavior of children, and the effects of these on the anthropometric measurements. Moreover, we also aimed to examine how a mother perceives her own weight and how the perception status here affects the nutritional behavior and especially the appetite status of children. 118 children, who were born prematurely (PM) and had intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) or small for gestational age (SGA) between June 2012 and June 2015, and 182 children with appropriate for gestational age (AGA) were examined. Demographic data and anthropometric measurements of the whole study group were recorded. The mothers were given the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). The correlation of desire for fluid intake, access to food and food withdrawal with birth status, developmental retardation and obesity was analyzed. The average age of children was 4.7±1.3 years and 160 (53.3%) were male. The average birth week was 36.8±33 weeks and the average birth weight was 2798.8±766.9 grams. Out of the patients included in the study, 33% had PM, 2.3% had SGA, 4% had both PM and SGA and 60.7% had AGA. There was no statistically significant difference between the children with PM/SGA and AGA in terms of food responsiveness, emotional overeating, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emotional under eating and selective eating (p>0.05). Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between the children with PM/SGA and AGA in terms of food access, food withdrawal and desire for liquid intake (p>0.05). There was no correlation between emotional under eating and selective eating and the BMI status. On the other hand, it was found that the children with low BMI had low scores of food responsiveness, emotional overeating and enjoyment of food (p<0.05). Additionally, the children with high BMI had lower scores of satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating (p<0.05). The children with high BMI were detected to have high scores of food access and low scores of food withdrawal. The scores of emotional overeating and enjoyment of food in children with mothers, whose weight estimates were incompatible, were significantly higher (p<0.05). The scores of satiety responsiveness were detected to be higher in those with mothers, whose weight estimates were compatible (p<0.05). In conclusion, there was no correlation detected between the birth weight, birth status (PM/SGA/AGA) and the appetite of the children. The BMI and body weight of the children with more appetite were found to be higher, whereas the BMI and body weight of the children with less appetite were lower. Mothers' self weight perception had an effect on the appetite. Keywords: Prematurity, small for gestational age, appetite, obesity, underweight