Parents are not entirely responsible for the child's weight gain & # 39;

Research suggests that pointing fingers at parents for children's weight gain may be unfair.

Parents' eating habits were thought to be an important factor in determining whether a child was overweight or overweight.

However, one study suggests that parents adapt their feeding styles based on the natural weight and size of the child, who are largely influenced by genetics.

The study was conducted by researchers from King's College London and University College London (UCL).

Research indicates that since the onset of the childhood obesity crisis at the turn of the century, attention has focused on the environmental factors of the problem – in the hope of find solutions.

• Parental advice reduces childhood obesity
• What does it mean if a child is "seriously obese"?

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, parents' behaviors have been the focus of a lot of attention," he says.

"Parents are generally regarded as the" guardians "of their children's food and a powerful factor in the development of their eating behavior."

Styles of parental nutrition

The study notes that two types of parenting styles, in particular, play a role in the way parents regulate children's eating habits:

• dietary restriction, which would lead to weight gain because children eat too much when the restriction does not exist ("forbidden fruit" effect)
• the pressure to eat, which is supposed to make children with poor appetite anxious and compromise weight gain

But instead of dictating the habits of children, research suggests that parents "react to the emerging characteristics of their child, not just to their cause."

The researchers evaluated data from the Early Twins Development Study of 4,500 pairs of twins born in England and Wales between 1994 and 1996.

They calculated a genetic score indicating the likelihood that these individuals would obtain a higher or lower body mass index (BMI).

They then compared this score to the parents' diet reports, indicating whether they used restrictions or pressures.

The study found that children with a higher genetic BMI score had higher parental restriction rates and those with a lower BMI, higher pressure rates, suggesting that parents adjusted their strategies for each child.

Even in families where the genetic predispositions of non-identical twins differed, parents were more restrictive, the twin tended to have a higher weight, and put more pressure on the twin who tended to weigh less.

What do the results show?

Saskia Selzam, lead author of King & # 39; s College London, says, "Our findings suggest that parents develop their eating habits in response to their child's natural tendency to higher or lower weight.

"The way a parent feeds his child may also have some influence on his child's weight, but our results challenge the widespread belief that parental behavior is the primary influence on the weight of the child. # 39; s child ".

Dr. Clare Llewellyn of UCL, senior author, adds, "These findings show that parents are not the" complete story "about the weight of the child, and blaming parents for over-controlling their diet can to be unfair.

"But it's not clear if these natural" resort to "strategies are helpful, harmful or inconsequential to a child's weight in the long run."

Do parents have an impact on weight?

Ms. Selzam says that parents clearly have an impact, but not only in establishing eating behaviors acquired.

"This does not mean that feeding strategies are not important.

"But the bottom line is how parents are genetically influencing their children's BMI.

"Many studies suggest that it is parents who cause weight gain, but we show that it is more complex than that."

The researchers say that further studies are needed to identify acceptable feeding strategies and how they work.

The study is published in PLOS Genetics.