We wish to examine the associations between maternal dietary patterns obtained using Principal Components Analaysis (1) with those obtained in the children at 3,4, 7 and 9 years of age (2-4). The development of children's food preferences is primarily influenced by parental control which in turn is likely to be most affected by parental dietary habits. We have already established that a number of social and lifestyle factors are associated with child dietary patterns and these will be taken into account in order to determine whether there are any direct associations between the way a mother eats and how she feeds her child or whether the variation in child dietary patterns can be explained purely by socioeconomic and lifestyle factors

Initially we will focus the current analysis on maternal dietary patterns obtained when the children were 47 months of age and the child dietary patterns at 54 months. Continuous scores were obtained for each dietary pattern for both mothers and children. Associations between these scores will be examined using correlations, weighted kappas (using quintiles of scores) and regression analyses.

To our knowledge no other study has examined such associations using dietary patterns with the exception of Robinson et al who showed that pre-pregnancy maternal dietary patterns were associated with infant dietary patterns at 6 and 12 months of age (5). It is important to examine dietary patterns in later childhood when children are beginning to exert their independence.

1. K Northstone, P Emmett, I Rogers. Dietary patterns in pregnancy and associations with socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008; 62: 471-479.

2. K North, P Emmett and the ALSPAC Study Team. Multivariate analysis of diet among three-year old children and associations with socio-demographic characteristics. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000; 54: 73-80.

3. K Northstone, P Emmett and the ALSPAC Study Team. Multivariate analysis of diet in children at four and seven years of age and associations with socio-demographic characteristics. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2005; 59: 751-760.

4. K Northstone, PM Emmett. Are dietary patterns stable throughout early and mid-childhood? A birth cohort study. British Journal of Nutrition 2008. AOP: doi: 10.1017/S0007114508968264.

5. S Robinson, L Marriot, J Poole, S Crozier, S Borland, W Lawrence. Dietary patterns in infancy: the importance of maternal and family influences on feeding practice. Br J Nutr 2007;98:1029-1037.