{"doi":"10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.102100","title":"Es Niño o Niña?: Gender Differences in Feeding Practices and Obesity Risk among Latino Infants","abstract":"BackgroundObesity prevalence is significantly higher among Latino boys than girls. Weight status at 12 months, a significant predictor of childhood obesity, is associated with feeding practices during infancy.ObjectiveThe objectives were to examine breastfeeding and formula feeding practices overall and by infant gender; and to examine relations among infant gender, milk-feeding practices, and obesity risk among Latino infants over the first year of life.MethodsLatino mother-infant dyads (n = 90) were recruited from a pediatric clinic. Mothers were interviewed at regular intervals (infant ages 2, 4, 6, and 9 months) and 24- hour(h) feeding recalls were conducted when infants were aged 6 and 9 months. Infants’ lengths and weights were retrieved from clinic records to calculate weight-for-length percentiles. We conducted bivariate analyses to compare feeding practices by gender and mediation analysis to test whether feeding practices mediated the relation between gender and obesity risk.ResultsThe majority (80%) of mothers were born outside the U.S. In early infancy, mixed feeding of formula and breastfeeding was common. At 6 and 9 months of age, milk-feeding practices differed, with formula feeding more common for boys than girls. At 12 months, 38% of infants experienced obesity risk (>85th weight-for-length percentile). Infants’ obesity risk increased by 18% per 1 ounce (oz) increase in powdered formula intake. Formula intake among boys was on average 1.42 oz (in dry weight) higher than among girls, which in turn, mediated their increased obesity risk (IERR = 1.27, CI95 = 1.02, 1.90).ConclusionsThe increased obesity risk among Latino boys vs. girls at 12 months was explained by higher formula feeding at 6 and 9 months of age. Future investigations of cultural values and beliefs in gender-related feeding practices are warranted to understand the differences in obesity risk between Latino boys and girls.","journal":"Current Developments in Nutrition","year":2024,"id":475406,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9523,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":521815,"name":"Maureen M. Black","orcid":"0000-0002-6427-4639","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1312474,"name":"Kristen McElhenny","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":513367,"name":"Jeffrey D. Labban","orcid":"0000-0002-3138-6925","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":505925,"name":"Jasmine M. DeJesus","orcid":"0000-0002-0981-2481","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":965018,"name":"Jigna Dharod","orcid":"0000-0003-1408-8800","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:06:16.992586Z","pmid":"38425439","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}