Nighttime eating during pregnancy and infant adiposity at 6 months of life

• Published in: Frontiers in nutrition (Lausanne) Vol. 11; p. 1364722
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Cano, Ameyalli M, Medel-Canchola, Berenice, González-Ludlow, Isabel, Rodríguez-Hernández, Carolina, Reyes-Muñoz, Enrique, Schiffman-Selechnik, Esther, Estrada-Gutierrez, Guadalupe, Perichart-Perera, Otilia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 10-07-2024
• Subjects: chrononutrition; fat mass; fetal programming; Nutrition; obesity; prenatal nutrition; prenatal nutrition; fetal programming; obesity; fat mass; chrononutrition
• ISSN: 2296-861X; 2296-861X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1364722

Chrononutrition studies the relation between diet, circadian rhythms and metabolism, which may alter the metabolic intrauterine environment, influencing infant fat-mass (FM) development and possibly increasing obesity risk.
To evaluate the association of chrononutrition in pregnancy and infant FM at 6 months.
Healthy pregnant women and term-babies (
 = 100pairs) from the OBESO cohort (2017-2023) were studied. Maternal registries included pregestational body-mass-index (BMI), gestational complications/medications, weight gain. Diet (three 24 h-recalls, 1 each trimester) and sleep-schedule (first and third trimesters) were evaluated computing fasting (hours from last-first meal), breakfast and dinner latencies (minutes between wake up-breakfast and dinner-sleep, respectively), number of main meals/day, meal skipping (≥1 main meal/d on three recalls) and nighttime eating (from 9:00 pm-5:59 am on three recalls). Neonatal weight, length, BMI/age were assessed. At 6 months, infant FM (kg, %; air-displacement plethysmography) was measured, and FM index (FMI-kgFM/length
) computed. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) was recorded. Multiple linear regression models evaluated the association between chrononutrition and 6 month infant FM.
Mean fasting was 11.7 ± 1.3 h; breakfast, dinner latency were 87.3 ± 75.2, 99.6 ± 65.6 min, respectively. Average meals/day were 3.0 ± 0.5. Meal skipping was reported in 3% (
 = 3) of women and nighttime eating in 35% (
 = 35). Most neonates had normal BMI/age (88%,
 = 88). Compared to those who did not, mothers engaged in nighttime-eating had infants with higher %FM (
= 0.019). Regression models (
 ≥ 0.308,
 ≤ 0.001) showed that nighttime eating was positively associated with %FM (B: 2.7, 95%CI: 0.32-5.16). When analyzing women without complications/medications (
 = 80), nighttime eating was associated with higher FM [%FM, B: 3.24 (95%CI: 0.59-5.88); kgFM, B: 0.20 (95%CI: 0.003-0.40); FMI, B: 0.54 (95%CI: 0.03-1.05)]. Infant sex and weight (6 months) were significant, while maternal obesity, pregnancy complications/medications, parity, energy intake, birth-BMI/age, and EBF were not.
Maternal nighttime eating is associated with higher adiposity in 6 month infants.