Toddlers with overweight eat more calories, not more often than normal-weight children

British toddlers with overweight consume about 11 calories more per meal vs. normal-weight children, but do not eat more frequently, according to study findings presented at the European Obesity Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“Very young children who are overweight are consuming, on average, a little bit more than normal-weight children each time they eat,” Clare Llewellyn, MSc, PhD, a lecturer in behavioral obesity research at University College London, told Endocrine Today. “Although the extra amount at each meal seems quite small, over time these additional extra calories could amount to considerable overconsumption and, consequently, excess weight gain.”

Clare Llewellyn

Llewellyn and Hayley Syrad, a PhD student at University College London, and colleagues analyzed parent-reported data from 2,564 children aged 4 to 18 months from the 2011 U.K. Diet and Nutrition Survey of Infants and Young Children. The researchers found that children with overweight consumed on average 141 calories at each eating occasion vs. 130 calories for normal-weight children, but children with overweight did not eat more frequently throughout the day.

For every extra 24 calories, there was a 9% increased risk for overweight and obesity, according to researchers.

“Importantly, the overweight children appeared to be consuming more calories than the healthy weight children by eating larger portions of the same types of foods (160 g vs. 146 g) because there was no difference in the energy density of the meals consumed between overweight and healthy weight children,” the researchers wrote.

Llewellyn said an excess of 11 calories per meal equates to an extra 56 calories per day (assuming five meal times daily), an extra 393 calories per week, and an extra 1,703 calories per month — leading to approximately 2 extra days’ worth of energy each month.

“Limiting portion sizes and having a ‘no second helpings’ policy are strategies that parents might be able to use for preventing their toddlers from overeating, if they are concerned about their weight,” Llewellyn said. “Even small amounts of overeating can snowball over time, so it is useful to try and establish healthy eating patterns and appropriate portion sizes early on in life.”
Llewellyn said the cross-sectional findings may indicate that consuming larger portion sizes leads to overweight, but it is also possible that overweight children are consuming more calories because they have higher energy requirements.

“Prospective data would help us to understand if larger portion sizes are likely to play a causal role in early weight gain,” Llewellyn said. – by Regina Schaffer

Reference:

Syrad H, Llewellyn C. Oral presentation RS30.05. Presented at: European Obesity Summit; June 1-4, 2016; Gothenburg, Sweden.

For more information:

Clare Llewellyn, MSc, PhD, can be reached the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, Room 217, London WC1E 6BT; email: c.llewellyn@ucl.ac.uk.

Disclosure: Syrad is funded by the Medical Research Council and Nutricia Ltd. Llewellyn reports no relevant financial disclosures.