They Say: You’re Making Your Kid Fat
Hey, you know how everything that ever goes wrong with your kid is totally your fault? Yeah, add another thing to that list. Researchers are looking at the role parents play in childhood obesity, and finding some interesting links between how infants are fed and those babies’ weight when they are older.
Dr. Elsie Tavares of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School found that the faster babies gained weight in the first six months of life, the more likely they are to face weight problems by the time they are three years old.
I know the two kids in my house go against those findings — both gained weight fast, nursed a ton and were super pudgy babies, and now one is a skinny stringbean of a four-year-old and the other, who we seriously feared was headed for a sumo career because he was so chunky, is 19 months old and in the 25th percentile for weight. I know tons of other kids who followed the same pattern. One theory I have heard about this is that breastfed kids gain weight fast because of the high sugar content of the milk, and as they get older and don’t need to nurse as much and start eating solids, the milk becomes less caloric. Again, just a theory and I’m not remotely claiming it’s science, but it seems to explain the kids I know.
There’s more in the linked article, like a study that followed 96 mothers as they fed their babies formula. It found that babies that ate eight times a day versus seven were much more likely to be overweight, and that mothers often missed the cue that the baby had had enough (pulling their head away from the bottle).
Personally, I think too much fear over childhood obesity is causing parents to do things that aren’t in the best interest of their babies, like discouraging a nine month old’s love of food, putting young kids on skim milk, or obsessing over every morsel. Po Bronson writes in NurtureShock about a really good study that correlated lack of sleep with obesity, for example. And I think that offering nutritious foods and laying off the sugar and processed crap, modeling good eating habits, not assigning values like “good” and “bad” to foods and getting everybody outside for a walk or or game of hide and seek on a regular basis is going to go a lot further towards making our kids healthy at any size than fixating on obesity as a horrible fate.
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Tags: breastfeeding, childhood obesity, feeding babies, infant health, infant weight gain, obesity, obesity epidemic, obesity study, pediatrician, they say, well-baby
2 Comments
Heather commented on Oct 13 09 at 1:08 pmI don’t think that ignoring it is going to help anyone although I do agree that getting more active is important. Just because researchers find a link between obesity and parenting doesn’t mean parents are to blame, but if you could do something better for your child, like lessen the chances of sids by putting them to sleep on their back, don’t you think doing that differently is worth it?
Rene commented on Oct 15 09 at 6:59 pmI believe some of it is genetic. Some people are predisposed to be larger than others, just as some kids and people are thin. However! Predisposition does not mean that one MUST become overweight, especially not to the point of obesity!
So, so how could parents not, at least to some degree, be to blame? An infant or toddler or even an elementary school age child can eat only what is available to them. They can sit for hours in front of the TV or computer only if its allowed. Parents take a very bad rap about many things that aren’t our fault, and that sucks. But in this case.. we OBVIOUSLY do have something to do with it. The choices we make in the foods we provide, how many cookies we allow them to eat, do they really need a dessert every night? Do you teach your child to eat emotionally by giving them a treat if they fall down?
“Oh? Baby got an owie? Here baby, have a cookie.”
One thing people like to blame are the food manufacturers. Well, ok. Processed food sucks. But it’s the PARENTS that choose to feed thier children these things, not the children themselves (though they may beg and cry and throw fits) In the end it is still, or SHOULD still be, the PARENTS’ choice what that child does and eats, generally speaking throughout the day.
If you child is getting chunky, then by all means, take the candy away. If they want a snack, give them a fruit or some veggies. If they dont want that, then they can wait until dinner!
To wrap it up, I don’t think parents are totally to blame. There are genetics predispostions. HOWEVER, up to a certain age, the parents are in charge of food an activities. So tell me.. Who SHOULD we blame for our children’s obesity?
Anyway, that was longer than I intended. I just get so annoyed with these subjects.
