What mom brings to the table

Broadly conceptualized, mothers’ feeding styles fall into one of three possible modes: pushing, restricting, and controlling. Each of these styles has been the subject of extensive study in relation to child overweight, and the jury is still out on whether there is a clear causal relationship between any one of the these styles and the child’s risk of becoming overweight. Data from these studies will be reviewed briefly here. A more extensive review is available elsewhere.

Studies on the impact of maternal pushing, pressuring, or prompting children to eat have had conflicting results. Some show thinner children are prompted more often to eat, others show heavier children getting more prompts, and still others show no relationship at all. Mothers who restrict access to food or to particular foods tend to be more concerned about their child’s being too heavy, and they tend to have children who are heavy. This link between restrictive maternal feeding styles and overweight appears to be particularly true for girls, possibly because mothers may be more concerned about having an overweight daughter than an overweight son.

Of course, there are also mothers who allow children a relatively free choice in what they eat. This “hands off” style, like restrictive styles, has not been consistently linked to weight status. Some studies show that mothers of heavier children allow more choice. Others show mothers of thinner children tend to have this feeding style. And some show no relationship. The upshot of all this seems to be that the link, if any, between maternal feeding style per se and childhood obesity remains unclear.

“I don’t allow eating between meals”

The issue: Some mothers think they need restrictive rules about eating.

Why it matters: Parents tend to exert more control over the eating behavior of children who are already somewhat heavy. There is evidence that this only increases the child’s risk of becoming obese.

Starting the conversation: “Some parents find they need to have a lot of rules and restrictions about eating, or else their children would not eat a healthy diet. Other families don’t feel they need many food rules. What’s your family like? What kind of rules and restrictions do you have? Which ones work best? Which don’t work so well? Why do you think that is? Do you think some children need more rules about eating than others? Why is that?”

A mother’s feeding style may interact with other factors that lead to an increased risk of overweight. Obese mothers express more concern about their child’s eating and becoming overweight.  These mothers seem to at tune their feeding behavior more carefully to their child’s weight status than do non-obese mothers.  That may be because they are more invested in preventing their heavy child’s progression to obesity.

Yet despite their efforts, genetically mediated behavioral traits may continue to increase the child’s risk for overweight. In one study, for example, obese and non-obese mothers were compared as to how frequently they prompted their children about eating. It turned out that both groups of mothers prompted their children with similar frequency, but the children of the obese mothers were more likely to comply with the prompts they received. This study suggests that children who are genetically predisposed to obesity may respond to the same maternal feeding behaviors differently than children who are not genetically predisposed.