Colombian retrospective study of the association between breastfeeding duration and eating behaviors

Abstract

The current retrospective cross-sectional study included 175 Colombian caregivers of children ranging between 24 and 59 months old (M=47.08, SD=7.08) enrolled in childcare centers located in the Caribbean region. 58% of the children are male, and all of them belong to low-income families. Breastfeeding duration ranged between children’s 0 to 37 months old (M=10.84, SD=8.48); 64 of them had exclusive breastfeeding for during their first 6 months (i.e., no fed with bottle). Results showed that the variance of Food Responsiveness explained by the model was 2% (R2=.02, F(3,161)=1.081, p=.359). Breastfeeding duration did not significantly predict Food Responsiveness (β=-.004, p=.219), as well as age (β=.004, p=.346) and gender (β=.056, p=.354) did not significantly explain the dependent variable. Likewise, Satiety Responsiveness variance was not explained by duration of breastfeeding (β=.002, p=.548), age (β=.003, p=.489), and gender (β=.040, p=.561). Overall, the explained variance was less than 1% (R2=.008, F(3,161)= .428, p=.733). Breastfeeding duration does not significantly change the child’s likelihood of being unhealthy (β=-.010, p=.616), while being male and getting older increase the odds of being healthy. Future directions and limitations are discussed.