Parents' influence matters in how their kids eat: Study

Researchers have shown that parents influence how much children eat more than they may think.

In this collaborative study between the CU School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama Birmingham, researchers observed normal, everyday mealtimes in the homes of 145 parents and their preschoolers recruited from a Head Start program in the Houston area.

They investigated the relationships between how much parents served themselves at mealtime, the amounts of foods they served to their children and how much children ate at dinner time.

The results revealed that parents served children very similar amounts to those they gave themselves and that the amounts children were served strongly predicted the amounts they ate.

Susan Johnson, PhD, professor of pediatrics at the CU School of Medicine and a lead investigator for the study, suggests paying attention to the portions offered to children and for parents to ensure that they offer child-sized portions of healthy foods.

Prompting children to eat according to their feelings of hunger and fullness, rather than parents deciding how much is enough, also is an important step towards promoting healthy eating and growth.