In two studies published in a special issue of the journal Early Child Development and Care devoted to “Parental Influences of Childhood Obesity”, researchers examine how parenting style – whether a strict but loving parent or a less-involved and more permissive parent – was associated with sedentary behaviour.

Overall, they found that children who had “neglectful” parents, or ones who weren’t home often and self-reported spending less time with their kids, were getting 30 minutes more screen time on an average week day.

“A half hour each day may not seem like much, but add that up over a week, then a month, and then a year and you have a big impact,” says lead author David Schary. “One child may be getting up to four hours more active play every week, and this sets the stage for the rest of their life.”

Some might wonder whether parents who were less participatory during the week days made up for it during the weekends. Actually, just the opposite happened. Sedentary time increased nearly one hour each weekend day.

Bradley Cardinal, who co-authored both papers with Schary and Paul Loprinzi, says sedentary behaviour goes against the natural tendencies of most preschool-age children.

“Toddlers and preschool-age children are spontaneous movers, so it is natural for them to have bursts of activity many minutes per hour,” he said. “We find that when kids enter school, their levels of physical activity decrease and overall, it continues to decline throughout their life. Early life involvement is imperative for establishing healthy, active lifestyles, self-awareness, social acceptance, and even brain and cognitive development.”

In their second study, it was also found that parents who actively played with their kids had the most impact, but that any level of encouragement, even just watching their child play, made a difference.

“When children are very young, playing is the main thing they do during waking hours, so parental support and encouragement is crucial,” Schary said. “So when we see preschool children not going outside much and sitting while playing… we need to help parents counteract that behaviour.”

Both these studies were published in Early Child Development and Care 182:8 (2012), and are now available to read online:

Parenting style associated with sedentary behaviour in preschool children

David P. Schary, Bradley J. Cardinal & Paul D. Loprinzi

Parental support exceeds parenting style for promoting active play in preschool children

David P. Schary, Bradley J. Cardinal & Paul D. Loprinzi
The entire special issue contents can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gecd20/182/8.

ᔥTaylor and Francis

I remember as a child playing outside, building forts,skipping, climbing trees, playing hopscotch… Happy carefree days… no computers, no Xbox – gasp- no TV. I walked half a mile to elementary school every day. How did I survive? Am I giving my age away? You can bet your bottom booty I am.

A growing body of research is showing the importance of the first few years of life for future health. Only 30% of children are estimated to get the recommended amount of exercise,and childhood obesity is growing. According to the NHS National Obesity Observatory, 23% of children aged four to five are obese or overweight.

In Britain, new government guidelines will be issued this week by Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England. These guidelines recommend that children under the age of five should take a minimum of three hours of exercise a day.They will say that “children under five should spend as little time as possible being restrained or sitting still except when they are sleeping”.

Babies should take part in swimming sessions and stretching and playing on “baby gym” activity mats, according to the guidance by the government’s chief medical officers. Toddlers should walk for at least 15 minutes of any routine journey, such as to and from nursery, they say. The advice, the first to target under-fives, comes amid growing concern about levels of childhood obesity and new research linking a lack of physical activity with poor brain development and social interaction.

Source: The Times

As we come to recognize the problem of global obesity, discussion is invariable turning to what are we going to do about it, and who’s to blame. Time delves into current research and ask the loaded question-Are Working Moms to Blame for Childhood Obesity? Good headline guaranteed to rankle all the working moms out there.

In the past 30 years, childhood obesity has tripled. Couple that with the stat that 70% of U.S. mothers with young children work, and it’s not unreasonable to be concerned. Of course, there are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, including easy access to cheap, prepared foods and kids’ increasing preference for apps over exercise.

Source: Time

I favour Mark Bittmann’s approach, without leveling the same proportion of blame, he adds his voice to the problem of how we should tackle the problem of growing world wide obesity in his New York Times article – A Food Manifesto for the Future

Encourage and subsidize home cooking. (Someday soon, I’ll write about my idea for a new Civilian Cooking Corps.) When people cook their own food, they make better choices. When families eat together, they’re more stable. We should provide food education for children (a new form of home ec, anyone?), cooking classes for anyone who wants them and even cooking assistance for those unable to cook for themselves.

Source:New York Times