(PTFS04-04-26) Prenatal Dietary Inflammation Is Associated With Appetitive Traits Among Infants of Mothers With High Body Mass Index: Findings From the MIMM Observational Cohort Study

Objectives: Despite preclinical data on the role of the nutritional and metabolic milieu during gestation in programming obesogenic eating behaviors in offspring, little is known about the extent to which the inflammatory potential of maternal diets in pregnancy influences appetite traits in infancy. This study aimed to 1) determine associations between the prenatal Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) and infant appetitive traits, and 2) identify the moderating role of early pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and infant sex.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of 73 mothers and their healthy term infants from the Mother and Infant Metabolome and Microbiome prospective cohort study. We calculated maternal DII from a Food Frequency Questionnaire reflecting intake in the last month of pregnancy. We derived appetitive trait scores at 6 months of age across 5 domains from the Baby Eating Behavior Questionnaire, including: food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, and general appetite. We used multivariable linear regression to quantify associations between prenatal DII and infant appetitive traits, adjusting for maternal age, education, race, and infant age at assessment. We conducted interaction analyses with early pregnancy BMI (BMI ≥ 25 (overweight or obesity [OWOB]) vs. < 25 kg/m² ) and infant sex.

Results: Most mothers were White (78.1%), held graduate degrees (75%), and 43.3% had OWOB; their mean ± SD DII score was -0.50 units ± 2.07. The median age at infant assessment was 5.9 months. In fully adjusted models, prenatal DII score was not significantly associated with infant appetitive traits in the overall cohort. However, associations with general appetite scores differed by early pregnancy BMI category (p-int = 0.05) and infant sex (p-int = 0.03). In stratified analyses, higher maternal DII scores were associated with greater general appetite scores only among infants of mothers with OWOB (β = 0.15; 95% CI: 0.002, 0.31) and male infants (β = 0.16; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.31).

Conclusions: Modifying maternal diet during pregnancy may present an opportunity to impact obesogenic behaviors in infancy. Future clinical trials are needed to evaluate whether targeting dietary inflammation promotes healthier eating behaviors among children.

Funding Sources: Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, NIH-NIDDK