Association Discovered Between Children's BMI And Working Mothers

Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past three decades, and prior research has linked maternal employment to children's body mass index (BMI), a measure of their weight-for-height. A new study in the January/February issue of the journal Child Development has found that children's BMI rose the more years their mothers worked over their children's lifetimes.

Researchers at American University, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago used longitudinal information from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which was sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). They looked at 900 children in grades 3, 5, and 6 who lived in 10 cities across the country.

The researchers found that the total number of years mothers were employed had a small but cumulative influence on their children's BMI, which, over time, can lead to an increase in the likelihood of overweight or obesity. The findings were strongest among children in 5th and 6th grades. Surprisingly, changes in children's physical activity, time spent unsupervised, and time spent watching TV didn't explain the link between maternal employment and children's BMI. Moreover, the time of day moms worked wasn't significantly associated with children's BMI.

The reasons for these findings are not entirely clear. According to the authors, one possibility is that working parents have limited time for grocery shopping and food preparation. This may contribute to a greater reliance on eating out or eating prepared foods, which tend to be high in fat and calories.

Given that more than 70 percent of U.S. mothers with young children work, the importance of providing support to these families is clear. Based on their findings, the researchers call for efforts to expand the availability of affordable, readily accessible healthy foods, and to support and educate working parents about strategies for providing nutritious meals despite busy schedules.

"About a fifth of American children are considered obese, and childhood obesity has been associated with health, behavior, and academic problems in adolescence and adulthood," according to Taryn W. Morrissey, assistant professor in public administration and policy at American University, who led the study.

"Community- and school-based programs offer promise for promoting healthy weight by providing information to children and their families about nutrition and exercise, as well as how to make quick, healthy meals."

The study was supported by NICHD.

Source:
Sarah Hutcheon
Society for Research in Child Development

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Nationwide Children's Hospital Eliminates Sugared-Sweetened Beverages From Campus

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, sweetened drinks are the primary source of added sugar in the daily diet of children. Each 12-ounce serving of a carbonated, sweetened soft drink contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories. A child who consumes one can of regular soda needs to walk 45 minutes just to burn it off.

Nationwide Children's Hospital commits to addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity, and promotes the value of health and well-being for patients, families and staff members. On January 3, 2011, Nationwide Children's will join just a handful of other healthcare institutions by eliminating all sugared-sweetened drinks from its campus. This new policy applies to the hospital's cafeterias, gift shops, vending machines, patient room service and on-site catering service.

"Based on Nationwide Children's regular soda sales alone, patients, staff and visitors were consuming nearly 43,000 pounds of excess sugar in these drinks each year - that's equivalent to the weight of 21 Volkswagen Beetles," said Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice and vice president of Health Services Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "That is just unacceptable, and if we wanted to walk the walk, we needed to do something about it."

Waters, low-fat milk, pure fruit juices and diet sodas are all healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened drinks. Nationwide Children's is expanding its selection of these healthier drink options, and in addition, will decrease the cost of bottled water for sale in its cafeteria and food court.

The hospital has always been at the forefront in the fight to combat pediatric obesity. Nationwide Children's has shown this through many clinical and educational programs, and just recently, by championing the landmark Healthy Choices for Healthy Children anti-obesity legislation in Ohio earlier this year.

During the last few years, the hospital has made other healthy changes to its campus including:

- Eliminating deep-fat fryers from room service food preparation and offering healthier, baked versions of items like French fries and chicken nuggets (e.g. by baking French fries instead of frying them, it saves 240 calories).

- Reworking the ingredients of popular food items like spaghetti with meat sauce to make them healthier (e.g. making chicken salad with light mayonnaise saves 190 calories and not adding butter to cooked vegetables saves 123 calories).

- Offering a "Healthier Selection" on the cafeteria menu which contains less than 600 calories, less than 30 percent of calories from fat and less than 600 mg of sodium.

- Posting nutrition information in the cafeteria, food court, gift shops and on the hospital's Intranet.

- Reducing the size of many snacks and drinks sold in the hospital's gift shops, expanding the healthier snack options like trail mix and having educational signage and handouts on how to save calories and make healthy choices.

Not only are sweetened beverages not so good for a child's diet, but they also have an effect on the health of their teeth.

"At Nationwide Children's, we have one of country's largest pediatric dentistry programs, and oral health is severely affected by the acids and sugars in many of these beverages," said Dr. Kelleher, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "Cutting back or eliminating sugared drinks from a child's diet will greatly improve the health of their teeth."

Sugar-free doesn't mean caffeine-free and there will still be caffeinated drink options at the hospital. Staff and patient families will still be able to bring in their own sugar-sweetened beverages however they will not be able to purchase them on campus. Physicians, residents and nurses will have the option to order sugar-sweetened drinks for patients (e.g. dehydration, GI tube cleaning, increase calories in patient's diet, etc.) in special circumstances.

Source:
Nationwide Children's Hospital

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