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The thin line between encouraging kids to eat and obesity
Filed under: Just For Moms, Nutrition: Health, Development/Milestones: Babies
Poor kids! They are often chastised for not finishing their meals, yet research shows that more and more are becoming obese. What should we do? A study in the September issue of The Journal of Pediatrics evaluated the role of mothers prompting their child to eat, the child's compliance with those prompts, and the potential contribution of each to the risk of obesity. The researchers videotaped and evaluated the tasting of four different foods by 71 mother-child pairs. Two of the foods presented were familiar (a cream-filled sponge cake and potato chips) and two were unfamiliar (a sweet Chinese dessert cake and fried vegetable chips). The researchers recorded how many times the mother prompted her child to take a bite and whether the child obeyed these prompts. On average, children complied with their mother's prompts to take another bite approximately two-thirds of the time. Low maternal education, the presentation of unfamiliar foods, and younger age of the child were factors that predicted more prompting from the mother. On the other hand, the mother being obese, the offering of familiar foods, and older age of the child were factors that predicted the child's compliance with the prompts. In children of obese mothers, variables that predicted a higher body mass index in the child were low maternal education, more prompts by the mother to eat unfamiliar foods, and fewer prompts to eat and bites of the familiar foods. In contrast, in children of mothers who were not obese, none of these behaviors were related to the child's weight status. Obese mothers did not prompt their child to eat more than non-obese mothers. However, children of obese mothers complied with their mother's prompts to eat the unfamiliar foods approximately 67% of the time, whereas children of non-obese mothers complied with 52% of the prompts. This could be due either to the children of obese mothers being more sensitive to environmental cues to eat or their mothers' greater awareness of their child's weight; therefore, obese mothers should make more careful efforts towards shaping the child's eating behavior.
This makes it sound like we should be prudent in prompting children to eat. Sometimes, particularly if they eat little, some prompting may be useful; the lesson here, I guess, is not to overdo it. On the other hand, prompting a child to eat just for the sake of finishing everything on a plate is not good advice. What do you think?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
9-21-2006 @ 1:49PM
thordora said...The only prompting we do is to get them to try something. Otherwise, we try and remember that sometimes we aren't hungry, and sometimes, we just don't like the food.
I vividly remember getting the "starving kids in africa" speech as a child, and credit that, along with other factors, with my inability to leave food alone after I'm full. I want my children to intuitively know when to stop, rather than having to rediscover that art when they're 30.
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9-21-2006 @ 1:55PM
Nancy Toby said...If I'm reading this right, the children of obese mothers with a higher body mass index ate more in response to their own internal signals rather than prompting.
They probably simply feel hungrier than the thin kids. All the time.
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9-21-2006 @ 1:54PM
ann adams said...Agreed, which is why I do small servings even now that they're older. They can always ask for seconds.
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9-21-2006 @ 5:36PM
Lea said...(warning, novel to follow...)
That was very interesting. My parents required me to take bites of new foods, or ones I didn't like as a kid, such as yellow squash. I swallowed them whole. (grin)
More significantly, my parents would often make a huge drama when I would take a big portion of food: "There is NO WAY you could need that much rice! That is the biggest mountain of potatoes I've ever seen! You used enough salad dressing to feed an army!"
I was an extremely active, thin child. I played so hard, literally running all afternoon every day after school, and by dinnertime I really was starving nearly every evening. Those were, in fact, the amounts I needed, but I didn't have the confidence to brush off their comments--or to trust my internal controls.
I wonder if there are any studies about that kind of parental behavior? I ended up severly anorexic in high school and the first year of college, which doesn't seem too surprising in hindsight. Later, in my twenties, when no one was forcing me to try anything, I learned to like nearly everything.
Now that Baby A is approaching 2.5, she's highly energetic, happily uninterested in eating, and turning into the kind of skinny kid my husband and I were as kids. It's such a change from my wonderfully plump baby girl, but I'm taking a very offhanded approach, just putting things in front of her and rarely encouraging her to eat...and I will NEVER mock the amounts of foods she eats. No sense in repeating that scene. I never comment on her body to her, or on others' bodies. And she nursed exclusively for 6.5 months and continues into her second year so she could learn, right from the start, to control her own portions.
My mom has already made comments about what Baby A eats, such as, "A, you like your carbs too much, just like your Nana!" Those comments get quashed immediately....
Why do these things have to be so complicated? Is this some symptom of modern life--we have more food around than we know what to do with? (she asked rhetorically...!)
- L
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9-21-2006 @ 10:16PM
Tamyu said...After reading the article, I have to agree with Nancy.
Isn`t it possible that the children of obese mothers ate more because they had the predisposition to do so? Genetics do come into play when it comes to weight, so the children were probably more likely to eat more regardless of prompting. I doubt it has to due with more awareness of cues, etc.
It seems like a study with a lot of holes that makes some disconnected assumptions.
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9-22-2006 @ 3:27AM
Lisa said...My daughter is 3 years old and is constantly leaving the table after only a few bits. From talking to other parents, this is quite common in children her age.
I do have to prompt (and bribe sometimes) her quite a bit to eat. I think the most important thing here is making sure the child gets healthy foods (I've seen parents prompt their children to eat pizza, etc.).
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9-22-2006 @ 2:33PM
Sharon said...My 7 year old has had a larger frame since birth, which by itself isn't a problem, but she has also carried a little bit of extra fat in her belly. Without her knowing what I'm doing, I've been helping her trim down her tummy by engaging her in more activity and really paying attention to what and how much she is eating.
My daughter has two issues when it comes to eating. She doesn't know when to stop when it is something she really likes (always the starchy, sweet stuff), and she wants to snack often.
I have been limiting her portions of starchy/refined carbs, and allowing her seconds of veggies and lean meats. I also only allow her one afternoon snack, no matter how much she screams that she's still hungry.
Basically, on some days she was going over the healthy caloric intake for her size and age, not by a lot, but enough to keep that bit of extra padding on. It has not been easy, but it is coming off. She will always have a larger frame, but hopefully will be able to keep it leaner by her healthier eating habits.
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9-29-2006 @ 3:32PM
Christine Albury said...Yes, some prompting may be useful - particularly when a child is distracted by what's going on around him/her and needs a gentle reminder that it's time to eat!
But too much prompting - or even cajoling - can cause your child to lose the ability to decide for himself how much he actually NEEDS to eat. He becomes confused when it comes to trusting his innate ability to control his calorie intake. This is particularly true during the first year, when many parents feel that their babies "should" be eating a certain amount at a certain point. Even though it's pretty clear that the baby isn't ready for solid food, or has had enough to eat, some parents feel pressure to ensure that their child meets a "quota". But encouraging a baby to eat more than his body tells him he needs is quite likely to establish a pattern of over-eating that can persist in later life.
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