fathers responsible for fat kids?

metrovelvet

Does the rise in obesity in kids reflect the rise in permissive fathering or no fathering? What is the relationship between food and paternal authority?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070507/hl_nm/fathers_fat_children_dc;_ylt=AtHzFJ_JlFcDeK5E7nQ1rD3gcbYF

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Fathers who play less of a role in child rearing are more likely to have overweight or obese offspring, Australian researchers said.

A study of almost 5,000 youngsters revealed that fathers who do not set clear limits for their kids are more likely to have heavier children, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Dads who did lay down boundaries generally had children with a lower body mass index, said the study by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.

Hospital specialist Melissa Wake said the study was the first to suggest that men could help prevent early childhood obesity.

The study found that a mother's parenting style had little impact on whether a child was overweight or obese.

"Mothers are often blamed for their children's obesity, but this study suggests that for more effective prevention perhaps we should focus on the whole family," Wake told the AAP.

The study found that 40 percent of mothers and more than 60 percent of fathers polled were themselves overweight.

The research, to be presented at a pediatrics conference in Toronto this week, compared the BMIs of 4 and 5-year-olds with their how their parents behaved towards them.

Childhood obesity is growing in Australia, with more than 20 percent of preschool children either overweight or obese.

MyBaby

I think that is stupid, you can blame the role of a father in a child being over weight.

Some children have a high metabolism etc. It is up to both parents or if only the one parent to guide their children along teh right path, that goes for food too. You should try to feed children healthy stuff. My son eats plenty of yogurts, fruit such as bananas, grapes and loves his milk. He is not very fond of vegetables, so we buy vegetable fingers, like fish fingers and this is how we get veggies into him. lol

He does get sweets but not many of them, he will have some snacks or some jellies and every 3 or 4 days he will get a little bit of chocolate as a treat.

SOme children are also very active and dont tend to put the weight on as much as others. My son is 21months old and is a live wire, he nevers sits down for one second.

Pherekydes

MyBaby wrote:

I think that is stupid, you can blame the role of a father in a child being over weight.

Parents are responsible for what their children eat, especially when they are very young. Responsibility is split between the parents in the ratio of their respective feeding time. e.g. if the mother is responsible for cooking all the meals and all of the feeding then she should bear most of the responsibility if the kids are obese.

karen3212

Seems like a strange correlation alright.
I wonder if it is that Dads who set clear boundries for their kids, may make the kids feel more secure with him. I've sometimes met young people who were well aware that their mothers loved them unconditionally but were a little bit more unsure about how their fathers felt about them.
I don't know, I'm still thinking about this report, must think more now

Nevyn

I think that they could be looking at the roles Dad's would have traditionally played in thier children on walks ( to get them out of mammy's hair for a while ) and taking them to sports activities ( easier when thier are two parents as the other can stay at home with the rest of the kids ).

Other then that role in getting the kids out of the house to be more active I can't think of any other way that may be gender specific tbh.

Livign a healthyly life style and setting a good example and providing blanced meals and educating children about food is something that all parents are responsible for and not just fathers.

Crea

I'm tempted to say what a load of twaddle.
In my case I determine everything my children put into their mouthes from morning to night. I set the menu for the whole family so if I wanted to feed them deep fried chicken nuggets every day then that's what they would eat. My husband has dinner with us but he doesn't really notice if they eat or not. He does running around with them in the evening but I also take them to the park/playground/playgroup so we are both involved in their physical fitness.
My mother was the same. She set the menus and made sure we ate.
I really don't know what is meant by "fathers that lay down boundries". I won't dismiss it as twaddle until I have a better understanding of the study

metrovelvet

What I find intriguing is that it doesnt specify the father's parenting style around meal time exclusively in the influence of eating habits, but the father's parenting style in general as affecting children's eating habits specifically, and suggests, that the father has a stronger influence on self-prohibition than the mother who seems to have none according to this study.

crazy_dude6662

in my opinion its on the rise because parents let the kids watch television and eat lots of junk instead of giving them fruit and tellin them to go out and play.

Deliverance

metrovelvet wrote:

What I find intriguing is that it doesnt specify the father's parenting style around meal time exclusively in the influence of eating habits, but the father's parenting style in general as affecting children's eating habits specifically, and suggests, that the father has a stronger influence on self-prohibition than the mother who seems to have none according to this study.

This study sounds pretty much like bunk and is probably like most surveys in that it is selective. My girl has strict mealtimes, full 'healthy' brekky first thing, then play then nap, after nap a nice lunch, no snacks or food rewards or junk 'crap' food in between.

Evening time she gets a good dinner which she enjoys, veg and a little meat, this varies to give her experience and taste of different foods, variety shows up the favourite foods she likes as well.

Deserts, which she loves, consist of a variety of fruit or a petit filous to stave of constipation. She doesn't get desert immediately after dinner I wait awhile so as not to associate the finishing of dinner early having not ate her fill to just get desert .

Drinks throughout the day are milk, water and the occasional fruit juice.

It's a battle to get relatives to understand that they cannot just randomly fire sweets choclate and snacks at her to make themselves feel good, so far so good but it is ongoing.

I'm a Dad and If my girl gets obese or fat, then she will be doing it on healthy foods and metabolism, excercise and sports will probably be the next mission in her growing up, myself and my ex have the same policies on this thankfully, so as a Dad I'm bunking this survey by real experience.

nesf

Oooh correlation equals causation once again in the fight against obesity.