Kristen M Hurley

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

Feeding behaviours are established early in life, with lifelong influences on children's appetite, growth and health, emphasizing the importance of understanding how parent–child feeding interactions relate to children's eating and growth patterns. The objective was to examine reciprocity between parent‐reported feeding practices and children's obs...

Parental feeding practices are associated with children’s eating, but little is known about how childcare staff feeding practices relate to children’s eating. The study examined the associations between childcare staff feeding practices and children’s willingness-to-try-new-foods. Participants included children (n = 460), ages 3–5 years, and childc...

Mali national policy recommends that women take iron and folic acid supplements (IFA) from the time of the first antenatal care (ANC) visit, throughout pregnancy and during the first 3 months after delivery. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated their ANC guidelines to recommend the United Nations International Multiple Micronutrient...

Undernutrition and a lack of learning opportunities can jeopardize long-term growth and development among infants in low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a 6-month 2 × 2 cluster-randomized trial to assess the effects of multiple micronutrient-fortified beverages and responsive caregiving interventions among infants 6–18 months in 72 commu...

Background The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) promotes and supports breastfeeding for low-income women and children. A prior review reported negative associations of WIC with breastfeeding outcomes. WIC food package changes in 2009 increased breastfeeding support. Objective The objectives of this syst...

Background: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is intended to improve maternal and child health outcomes. In 2009, the WIC food package changed to better align with national nutrition recommendations. Purpose: To determine whether WIC participation was associated with improved maternal, neonatal-bir...

Large systematic review to evaluate evidence on whether participation in WIC is associated with improved nutrition & health outcomes for women, infants, & children, and whether the associations vary by duration of participation or across population sub-groups. Because of major revisions to Federal regulations for the WIC food package in 2009, we pr...

Background: Anemia is a global public health problem that undermines childhood development. India provides

Background Anemia is a global public health problem that undermines childhood development. India provides government-sponsored integrated nutrition/child development preschools. Objectives This double-masked, cluster-randomized controlled trial examines whether point-of-use multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) compared with placebo fortification of...

Rapid weight gain increases risks of obesity and associated co-morbidities. The objective was to reduce the rate of body mass index (BMI) growth (BMI z score), relative to control. Secondary outcomes were toddler-mother physical activity, mealtime interactions and fruit/vegetable intake. The randomized three-arm, eight-session, 4-month trial, condu...

We evaluated the association between maternal anxiety score and diet quality over time among mothers and toddlers in low‐income families. Longitudinal data were collected from 267 mother–toddler dyads in an obesity prevention trial. Participants were recruited from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children and paedi...

One in four children younger than age five in Guatemala experiences anaemia (haemoglobin <11.0 g/dl). This study characterized the factors and micronutrient deficiencies associated with anaemia in a baseline cross-sectional sample of 182 Guatemalan infants/toddlers and 207 preschoolers, using generalized linear mixed models. Associations between an...

Stunting has been negatively associated with children's development. We examined the range of height by testing hypotheses: 1) height is positively associated with children's development, with associations moderated by inflammation and 2) home environments characterized by nurturance and early learning opportunities are positively associated with c...

Background: Adolescents' dietary intake often fails to meet national dietary guidelines, especially among low-income African-American youth. The dietary habits established in adolescence are likely to continue into adulthood, and a poor-quality diet increases the risk of developing obesity and chronic disease. Based on principles from ecological a...

Objective: Overall diet patterns may be a better predictor of disease risk than specific nutrients or individual foods. The purpose of this study is to examine how overall diet patterns relate to nutritional intake, body composition, and physiological measures of chronic disease risk among low-income, urban African American adolescents. Methods: Cr...

Responsive feeding is a derivative of responsive parenting that has been applied to infant and young child feeding. With a theoretical basis in the reciprocal interactions between parents and children, responsive feeding is particularly relevant during complementary feeding as young children progress from an exclusively milk-based liquid diet to th...

Objective To determine whether living in a food swamp (≥4 corner stores within 0·40 km (0·25 miles) of home) or a food desert (generally, no supermarket or access to healthy foods) is associated with consumption of snacks/desserts or fruits/vegetables, and if neighbourhood-level socio-economic status (SES) confounds relationships. Design Cross-sec...

Background: Shortened sleep duration is associated with poor health and obesity among young children. Little is known about relationships among nighttime sleep duration, sleep behaviors, and obesogenic behaviors/obesity among toddlers. This study characterizes sleep behaviors/duration and examines relationships with obesogenic behaviors/obesity am...

Economic inequities are common in low and middle-income countries (LMIC), and are associated with poor growth and development among young children. The objectives are to examine whether maternal education and home environment quality: 1) protect children by attenuating the association between economic inequities and children’s growth and developmen...

OBJECTIVE Economic inequities are common in low and middle‐income countries, and are associated with poor growth among young children. To examine whether maternal education and home environment quality attenuate the association between economic inequities and children's growth. METHODS The sample included baseline data from 512 infants and 321 pre...

Given the high prevalence of child stunting, the Government of Malawi, with technical support from the World Food Program, launched a large scale comprehensive nutrition program that provides daily LNS to children 6 to <24 months of age and a behavior change communications (BCC) package promoting optimal breastfeeding, meal frequency, and dietary d...

Postpartum, low-income mothers are at risk for mental health symptoms and obesity, and disordered eating attitudes may be associated with both mental health and obesity in this vulnerable population. The study objective is to determine whether higher levels of mental health symptoms are associated with increased odds of emotional and restrained eat...

In India, national databases indicate anaemia prevalence of 80 % among 6-35-month-old children and 58 % among 36-59-month-old children. The present study aimed to characterise anaemia and the associated factors among infants and pre-schoolers living in rural India. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of data collected prior to an intervention...

Background Malnutrition and lack of early learning (EL) opportunities are major causes for children not reaching their developmental potential. Objective To evaluate the impact of multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) and EL intervention on infants' micronutrient status and development. Methods 497 infants (6‐12 mos) were enrolled from 26 villages...

Introduction: Poor maternal mental health has been linked to unresponsive mother-child feeding interactions, possibly increasing children’s risk for obesity. This study assesses the relationship between maternal mental health (disordered eating, depression, and anxiety) and characteristics of feeding interactions (maternal sensitivity and structuri...

This article describes the development, design, and implementation of an integrated randomized double-masked placebo-controlled trial (Project Grow Smart) that examines how home/preschool fortification with multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) combined with an early child-development intervention affects child development, growth, and micronutrient...

This paper describes the development and validation of a 27-item caregiver-reported questionnaire on toddler feeding. The development of the Toddler Feeding Behavior Questionnaire was based on a theory of interactive feeding that incorporates caregivers' responses to concerns about their children's dietary intake, appetite, size, and behaviors rath...

Objective To examine patterns of toddler feeding behaviors overtime. Methods 277 mother‐toddlers pairs were enrolled in a 12–month randomized controlled trial to prevent toddler overweight. Mean maternal feeding behaviors (responsive, forceful, restrictive and indulgent; 5‐point scales) were examined at baseline, 6, and 12‐months post‐recruitment....

The study's objective was to examine the relation between maternal mental health and infant dietary intake. A cross-sectional, population-based telephone survey was employed within a statewide sample of Maryland Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children participants. A 24-h diet recall was performed using the United Sta...

The prevalence of maternal depression and infant malnutrition is high in developing countries. Maternal depression can interfere with parenting behaviors and may negatively impact infant nutrition and growth. This review examines studies that look at the relationship between maternal depression and infant growth. A literature search was conducted i...

To examine (1) accuracy of maternal perceptions of toddler body size; (2) factors associated with accuracy of toddler body size; and (3) how maternal satisfaction relates to accuracy/toddler body size. Cross-sectional. Low-income community sample from suburban Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)/urban pedia...

Objective To examine the longitudinal relations among household food security status, maternal depressive symptoms and maternal BMI. Methods The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B) is a nationally representative sample of approximately 10,700 families, evaluated at 9m, 2, 4, and 5 yrs. Maternal BMI (measured), depressive sympt...

This article examines the association of iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) with children's development and behavior, with the goal of providing recommendations to prevent the developmental loss associated with these conditions. Children's risk for ID and IDA is particularly high during the second 6 months of life when prenatal s...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between maternal depression and child growth in developing countries through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. METHODS: Six databases were searched for studies from developing countries on maternal depression and child growth published up until 2010. Standard meta-analytical methods were fo...

To investigate the relationship between maternal depression and child growth in developing countries through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Six databases were searched for studies from developing countries on maternal depression and child growth published up until 2010. Standard meta-analytical methods were followed and pooled od...

This study extends the determinants of parenting model to adolescent mothers by examining how adolescent mother-grandmother psychological conflict and perceptions of infant fussiness from birth through age 2 years relate to children's problem behaviors at age 7. Participants were 181 adolescent mother, child, and grandmother triads living in multig...

Deviations in infant/toddler growth patterns can lead to both under- and overweight and are global public health concerns that can have long-lasting impacts on children’s growth, health, and development (1, 2). Although access to food plays a central role in children’s postnatal growth, variability in the feeding context also influences children’s...

Child overweight/obesity continues to be a serious public health problem in high-income countries. The current review had 3 goals: 1) to summarize the associations between responsive feeding and child weight status in high-income countries; 2) to describe existing responsive feeding measures; and 3) to generate suggestions for future research. Arti...

Dietary variety and exposure to fruits and vegetables in infancy have been associated with nutritional benefits and later acceptance of these foods. The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of fruit and vegetable commercial baby food consumption and its relation to dietary variety during infancy. A cross-sectional statewide telepho...

Human GrowthTheory and Methods: Link between Infant Development and Infant NutritionNutrients for Infant Growth and DevelopmentFailure to ThriveInfant Feeding BehaviorDevelopmental Progression of Eating SkillsPolicies and Programs to Promote Infant NutritionRecommendations for Future Research Related to Infant NutritionReferences

Maternal depressive symptomatology is an important public health issue with negative consequences for both mothers and infants. This study examined prevalence and patterns of depressive symptoms among 181 urban, low-income, first-time, African American adolescent mothers recruited from urban hospitals following delivery. Follow-up evaluations were...

This study examined the association of maternal depression with the emotional and behavioral problems and adaptive skills of four- to ten-year-old children as rated by their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Eighty-four mothers had major depressive disorder, and 49 did not. They were predominantly African American or Latino and lived in low-income, u...

Background Infant weight gain may be influenced by maternal perceptions of infant size and appetite and maternal feeding styles, in addition to actual infant size. Objective To examine how maternal perceptions of infant size and appetite are related to maternal feeding styles and to infant weight gain. Methods Infant weight measured at birth and...

To examine the relationship between maternal and toddler dietary variety. Longitudinal; maternal and toddler dietary data were collected at 13 months; anthropometry was collected at 13 and 24 months. Data were collected in homes. 109 primiparous, low-income, African American adolescent mothers and toddlers. Maternal and toddler dietary variety and...

The Institute of Medicine recommended changes in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages to help families from diverse populations establish more healthful dietary patterns. A cross-sectional study conducted during summer 2007 included interviews and focus groups with 223 WIC participants thro...

Chronic disease is related to poor diet quality. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) was developed to assess diet quality. The Youth HEI (YHEI) is an adaptation of the HEI for use with children and adolescents. The objectives were to compare HEI and YHEI scores among adolescents at risk for chronic disease and to compare associations between the scores...

Parenting, including nonresponsive feeding styles, has been related to under- or overweight among young children. The relationship between maternal mental health and feeding styles has not been examined. We hypothesized that mothers who report more symptoms of stress, depression, or anxiety report less responsive (e.g. more controlling, indulgent,...

The objective of this study was to examine how breastfeeding behaviours, perceptions and experiences vary by race/ethnicity among a low-income sample in the USA. Bilingual interviewers conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey of 767 white, African American or Hispanic mothers who received the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, In...

There is increasing evidence that psychosocial factors may affect dietary intakes and health. The current analysis examined the association of six indices of psychosocial well-being with dietary intake during pregnancy. One hundred thirty-four women with low-risk, normal pregnancies participated in a cross-sectional, observational study that assess...