Image: Dr. Leann L. Birch, William P. Flatt Professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and Dr. Justin A. Lavner, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, were awarded a four-year, $2.7 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, an Institute within the National Institutes of Health. In collaboration with the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia and Augusta University Medical Center, their project will examine whether providing mothers of newborns with responsive parenting guidance to promote infant sleep and soothing can reduce rapid weight gain for African American infants born in low SES contexts, and also examines the risk and protective factors that may affect program efficacy. The proposed intervention represents an important step in efforts to reduce obesity risk among low income African Americans. Great work!
