Article 3: Children's Fatness as a function of parenting

NY Times article: (from AP)

On the whole, the newspaper article states the research findings in a
concise manner. As with studies of this complexity, some key issues were
not raised. For instance, the article did not mention how the researchers
calculated the children's caloric input, COMPX (the mean percentage
compensation reflecting the children's responsiveness), or the
"Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire," which details parental influence of
restraint or lack thereof.

As far as conclusions are concerned, the news article did hit the major
finding that parental control does lead to "less responsiveness to the
caloric density of the diet," but did not go on to qualify the statement as
the journal did: "There were large individual differences in how precisely
children regulated food intake, and these differences were also related to
children's body fat stores."

The news article didn't mention that "unanticipated sex differences were
found within the children's eating index. . . and overall, boys were better
than girls at adjusting their energy intakes in response to preload energy
changes." The researchers suggest that differential socialization
(regarding food and eating) is responsible for sex differences, which are
present as early as the preschool period.

Also, another interesting point raised in the article were "cultural
pressures. . . producing increases in dieting and a compulsion toward
thinness. . ." However, since subjects were only 3-5 years old, it is not
clear that this is entirely relevant.

Pediatrics, Vol.94 no.5 (November 1994)

The final paragraph of the journal article states clearly that "coercive
child-feeding strategies commonly used to ensure adequate intake may be
unnecessary and harmful" and that "it is important for parents to create an
optimal environment" that varies in types of foods. Most importantly, it
concludes that ultimate control of how much of these foods is eaten should
remain "within the child's domain." This is a healthy and safe conclusion
from the data that was collected. I am hesitant however, to suggest that
their data are conclusive.

Firstly, only 77 children were subjected to the experiment, and most were
from highly educated families, coming from university-related backgrounds.
Also, it's difficult to make direct correlations with real-world
situations, where caloric content is not always measurable. Cultural
differences in parenting and food are also largely hard to account for. It
would be interesting to use this study as a springboard for a broader
longitudinal study of the effects of parenting and possible future
adiposity. At 3-5 years, children's bodies are subject to tremendous
physical change even over the course of a few months, and therefore BMI
(body mass index) might not be terribly meaningful.

What concerns me most is that adiposity *does not necessarily mean
unhealthiness*. Unfortunately, the researchers did not establish a baseline
criteria for determining at what point adiposity posed a serious health
threat.