Mothers’ weight anxiety heavy load for kids
December 7th, 2005
By Jessica Heslam
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Mothers who frown upon those extra pounds take note:
Youngsters whose moms worry about their kids’ weight are more likely to diet and obsess about being thin, a new Hub study found.
But don’t just blame mother. Thin celebrities and peers had a bigger influence on the youngsters’ diet and desire to be skinny.
“It’s important for parents to realize that their own weight concerns may be transmitted to their children,” said lead author Alison Field, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital.
“It’s important to get children away from the dieting mentality when they are young,” Field said.
The researchers studied data from more than 5,300 adolescent girls and nearly 4,000 boys who took part in the Growing Up Today Study.
About half of the mothers said it was important that their daughters and sons not be fat. About 4 to 5 percent of the youngsters “accurately perceived” that their weight was important to their mother.
The boys and girls who knew weight was important to their mother were more likely to diet and think a lot about wanting to be thinner, the researchers said.
Dieting is among the top New Year’s resolutions. But instead of making a resolution to diet, mothers should adopt healthy eating habits and exercise for a “healthier lifestyle,” Field said.
Children who diet gain more weight than those who don’t, previous research has found.
“It will send a much better message,” Field said. “We need to get away from talking about losing weight all the time.”
The findings appear in this month’s Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine.
jheslam@bostonherald.com
Source: theedge.bostonherald.com
Entry Filed under: Weight Guides, Nutrition News
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