News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

A study published in the Dec. 6 edition of Nature revealed a connection between obesity and a genetic abnormality. According to the L.A. Times, the discovery spared one British couple the anguish of losing their children.

The youngsters severe obesity had been seen as a possible sign of abuse or neglect, and they had been put on the list of the country's social services department.

"They were being blamed for their childrens condition, receiving frequent visits from social services, frequent reviews, knowing people could have their children taken away," [researcher Dr. Sadaf] Farooqi said.

Both the study and the British couple's situation have raised questions about just how much parents can be held responsible for their children's weight problems. In June, a South Carolina mother was sentenced to 15 years in jail on felony charges of neglect. Her 14-year-old son weighs 555 pounds.

Labels: overweight, research, chilhood_obesity

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Mothers may be partly to blame for childhood obesity, because many of them are overfeeding their infants, according to a study from Rutgers University that appeared in appeared in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Dr. John Worobey and his colleagues monitored 96 mothers of babies at ages three months, six months, and twelve months old. The mothers tended to overfeed the children between six and twelve months old because they could not tell when the children were full. They fed them too frequently or did not slow the pace of feeding, which can lead to overweight and obesity.

Dr. Worobey said that such practices interfere with the childrens ability to self-regulate their own eating habits because their body gets used to the feeling of excessive amounts.

Weight-loss experts and other health professionals note that making
healthy food choices and eating appropriately sized portions are two important steps in the effort to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Labels: mothers, overweight, chilhood_obesity, eating habits

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A tough new campaign from the British government warns parents not to kill their children with kindness by over-feeding them and allowing them to be sedentary.

The government advertisements will feature a picture of three young children and the words, "One of us will die of heart disease or diabetes because of the foods our parents let us eat now."

Other parts of the newspaper ad say, "It is hard to say no to your kids, but if you give in every time you're not being kind, you're killing with kindness. Kids who eat the wrong sorts of food and sit around all day are more likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes and to die young. Some will die younger than their parents."

Great Britain is facing a childhood obesity epidemic in that one in four children is overweight when he starts school, and one in three is overweight five years later.

A spokesperson for the Childhood Growth Foundation, which keeps track of children's weights, said, "We are really concerned that parents are using sweets, chocolates and fizzy drinks to reward their children. ... (These foods) only store up problems for their children's future health."

Labels: health, chilhood_obesity, denial

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Parents often fall into one of three styles of parenting: strict, permissive or somewhere in between. Now a new study from Oklahoma State University finds that those styles affect how parents manage their children's diets.

Researchers who looked at parents of 239 first-graders found the following:

• Strict or authoritative parents were likely to prohibit their children from eating certain foods, and pressure them into fruits and vegetables.


• Permissive parents allowed their offspring to eat what they wanted.


• Both authoritative and in-between parents tended to lead by example and eat in healthy ways themselves.


• Neither the permissive nor the strict parents were good diet role models.

Dr. Laura Hubbs-Tair, author of the study, said she believes that family dynamics are an important consideration in finding solutions to childhood obesity.

This study appeared in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Labels: parenting_styles, chilhood_obesity, diet

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