As you can see above, our vacation rental apartments had traditional mats that rolled out on the floor, but our toddler was used to sleeping in a crib at home. My son is a busy sleeper and I knew he wouldn’t sleep well on the mats. Not only that, but I couldn’t find any baby equipment rental companies. This is when a good friend introduced us to the KidCo PeaPod Plus toddler tent. The KidCo PeaPod Plus weighs only 3.5 lbs and folds into its own bag to a circle with folded dimensions of 19” x 19” x 3.5”. Investigate the best body composition measure(s) that accurately predicts growth, nutritional status, obesity and health outcomes.

Fields DA, Demerath EW, Pietrobelli A, Chandler-Laney PC. Body composition at 6 months of life: comparison of air displacement plethysmography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012;20(11):2302–6. Eriksson JG, Osmond C, Kajantie E, Forsen TJ, Barker DJ. Patterns of growth among children who later develop type 2 diabetes or its risk factors. Diabetologia. 2006;49(12):2853–8. Ellis KJ, Yao M, Shypailo RJ, Urlando A, Wong WW, Heird WC. Body-composition assessment in infancy: air-displacement plethysmography compared with a reference 4-compartment model. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85(1):90–5. Shapiro ALB, Boyle KE, Dabelea D, Patinkin ZW, De la Houssaye B, Ringham BM, et al. Nicotinamide promotes Adipogenesis in umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells and is associated with neonatal adiposity: the healthy start BabyBUMP project. PLoS One. 2016;11(7):e0159575.Franz AR, Pohlandt F, Bode H, Mihatsch WA, Sander S, Kron M, et al. Intrauterine, early neonatal, and postdischarge growth and neurodevelopmental outcome at 5.4 years in extremely preterm infants after intensive neonatal nutritional support. Pediatrics. 2009;123(1):e101–9. Gianni ML, Roggero P, Taroni F, Liotto N, Piemontese P, Mosca F. Adiposity in small for gestational age preterm infants assessed at term equivalent age. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2009;94(5):F368–72.

Both KidCo PeaPod tents can be used starting at the age of 6 months old, but the PeaPod Plus can be used up to 5 years old, where the PeaPod tent can only be used up to 3 years old. The KidCo PeaPod and PeaPod Plus are available in Canada from the popular Westcoast kids baby store. Is the KidCo PeaPod for Babies? Andres A, Gomez-Acevedo H, Badger TM. Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance to measure fat mass in infants and children. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011;19(10):2089–95. Measuring body composition in Pea Pod involves the simultaneous weighing and measuring of length and body volume. Pea Pod assesses body composition considering an infant’s anthropometric and demographic characteristics that are entered in to the Pea Pod system by personnel. As weight changes dramatically during early infancy, this information should be obtained consecutively with the Pea Pod test. Per the manufacturer manual, it is advised to conduct the Pea Pod test in duplicate to potentiate the accuracy. Repeat measures in infants might be associated with practical challenges and might require a third test which increases both researcher and caregiver burden. Out of 73 papers utilising Pea Pod, 13 reported repeated measurements, six of which reported duplicate tests [ 62, 67, 76, 85, 112, 114], six reported a third test if the results of the first two differed significantly [ 81, 102, 105, 116, 117, 120], and one reported three tests (performed on all subjects) [ 115], and the remaining studies that did not duplicate did not provide a rationale. Ma et al. [ 18] examined the accuracy of Pea Pod measures of FM% against deuterium dilution in full-term infants aged 0.4 to 24.4 weeks and weighing 2.7 to 7.4 kg. Limits of agreement (95%) for FM% were relatively wide (− 6.84% to 6.71%). The authors reported that the results were not influenced by infant behavioural state. Ellis et al. [ 45] evaluated Pea Pod against a four-compartment model in full-term infants at 2 to 17 weeks of age. There was no bias for FM% but the 95% limits of agreement were also wide (− 6.8% to 8.1%). In multiple regression analysis that included protein and hydration fractions, the mineral fraction of FFM was the only significant factor associated with differences in FM% between Pea Pod and the four-compartment reference model (R 2 16%, P = 0.004). Fields et al. [ 49] compared Pea Pod and DXA in 84 full-term infants at 6 months of age. There was bias for FM% of − 4% and 95% limits of agreement of − 8% to 0%. However, the bias was positively related to FM%, suggesting underestimation of FM% in infants with lower fat content. Reproducibility

Warning

We started using the KidCo PeaPod Plus when our toddler was 14 months old. After our first trip, we were so pleased with it, that we decided to use it for a month in Italy. We didn’t go to this extreme before any other subsequent trips, but we never had any issues each time we pulled it out for a trip. KidCo PeaPod vs Joovy Gloo

Develop a set of recommendations for complete and transparent reporting of study procedures when using Pea Pod. The flaps rolled down on the KidCo PeaPod Plus also work to help eliminate distractions when sharing a room. Fields DA, Gilchrist JM, Catalano PM, Gianni ML, Roggero PM, Mosca F. Longitudinal body composition data in exclusively breast-fed infants: a multicenter study. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011;19(9):1887–91. Liu P, Ma F, Lou H, Liu Y. The utility of fat mass index vs. body mass index and percentage of body fat in the screening of metabolic syndrome. BMC Public Health. 2013;13:629.De Lucia Rolfe E, Modi N, Uthaya S, Hughes IA, Dunger DB, Acerini C, et al. Ultrasound estimates of visceral and subcutaneous-abdominal adipose tissues in infancy. J Obes. 2013;2013:9.

Henriksson P, Lof M, Soderkvist P, Forsum E. Variation in the fat mass and obesity-related (FTO) genotype is not associated with body fatness in infants, but possibly with their length. Pediatr Obes. 2014;9(5):e112–5. Carberry AE, Colditz PB, Lingwood BE. Body composition from birth to 4.5 months in infants born to non-obese women. Pediatr Res. 2010;68(1):84–8. Hemachandra AH, Howards PP, Furth SL, Klebanoff MA. Birth weight, postnatal growth, and risk for high blood pressure at 7 years of age: results from the collaborative perinatal project. Pediatrics. 2007;119(6):e1264–70. Both travel tents have a recommended age starting at 6 months compared and go up to 3 and 5 years based on the size of the tent.

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Javed A, Jumean M, Murad MH, Okorodudu D, Kumar S, Somers VK, et al. Diagnostic performance of body mass index to identify obesity as defined by body adiposity in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatr Obes. 2015;10(3):234–44. Lemas DJ, Young BE, Baker PR, Tomczik AC, Soderborg TK, Hernandez TL, et al. Alterations in human milk leptin and insulin are associated with early changes in the infant intestinal microbiome. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016;103(5):1291–300.