Josef Ressel Centre Perinatal Programming

Background: Metabolic imprinting through early childhood nutrition seems to play an important role in the aetiology of obesity. Overweight at age two and later in life is associated with excessive weight gain as early as three months of age. Breastfeeding in the first year of life appears to be protective against obesity development. Objective: of the "Josef Ressel Centre for Early Life Metabolic Programming of Dispositions of Obesity" is to identify maternal and infant predictors of metabolic risk of obesity. The main considerations of modifiable factors are early infant nutrition, 24-hours-drinking-volume, the velocity of infant weight gain, in relation to infant fat mass and fat free mass, to biomarker and to the nutritional status of the mother. A second focus is put on maternal feeding style, infant eating behaviour and the identification of satiety cues. Multi-Study design: a monocentric prospective longitudinal cohort of 100 healthy, non-obese, non-smoking pregnant mothers and their term, normal birthweight, singleton babies. Mothers and exclusively breastfed versus exclusively formula fed children (at 16 weeks) will be examined at 36 weeks of pregnancy, 4 - 8 - 12 and 16 weeks of life, follow-up at 1 and 2 years of life. Methods: four weighing protocols between 4th and 16th week of life, feeding diary, anthropometric data measurement of mother and child, child fat mass index by air displacement plethysmograph. Macronutrient and energy content of the breast milk will be analysed by MIRIS™. Well-defined biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation, lipid profile, adipokines, insulin, as well as micro- und macronutrients will be analysed as meaningful indicators regarding the development of obesity and/or the metabolic syndrome in newborns. Samples, such as plasma, urine, saliva, and stool of the mothers and children will be examined with High Performance Liquid Chromatography, High Performance Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, Enzyme-Linked Immunos