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Mothers whose toddlers are overweight frequently see them as havingno weight problem and are happy with their body size, suggestingthat overweight has become normal for several adults, researchersfrom the University of Maryland School of Medicine reported in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine . They also found that moms of underweight toddlers had accurateperceptions of their body size, but were dissatisfied. Erin R. Hager, PhD, said: "These findings are very concerning. Both parental perceptions of achild's body size and how satisfied a parent is with their child'ssize are likely to influence how parents feed their children.Parents who desire for their child to be larger, even if the childis a healthy weight (or overweight) may overfeed their child,increasing the toddler's risk for obesity later in life. Parents of overweight children who perceive their children as beinga healthy size may be unlikely to follow guidelines to preventoverweight. The next step in our research is to determine how tohelp parents adopt behaviors that promote healthy growth." The authors found that 94% of mothers whose toddlers wereoverweight thought their child weighed less than they really did.82% of them were happy with their child's size - in fact, some ofthem thought their toddler could do with some added pounds. How did mothers perceive their healthy weight toddlers? 63% of mothers whose toddlers were of healthy weight thought theyweighed less than they did 72% of mothers whose toddlers were of healthy weight were satisfiedwith their child's body size 21% of mothers whose toddlers were of healthy weight thought theirchild was too thin and should put on some weight Dr. Hager said: "The clinical implications of this research suggest that pediatricproviders promote guidelines for healthy growth with all families.The results suggest that pediatric providers should plot anddiscuss toddler weight status with families of all toddlers,emphasizing parents' roles in building healthy dietary andlifestyle habits for the family. The toddler silhouette scale is a helpful tool that could be usedin a clinical setting to gage parents' accuracy and satisfactionwith their child's body size, thus guiding counseling strategies." Food insecurity and maternal depression linked to higher children'shealth risks Another study, carried out by researchers form the University ofMaryland, and published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine , revealed that an increase in family stresses, such as maternal depression and food insecurity, raise the risk of children's health problems.Team leader, Maureen Black, PdD, explained that taking part in WIC(Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women,Infants - a public health program) does reduce the negative healthconsequences experienced by stressed families, but does noteliminate them. Dr. Black said: "The building blocks that support children throughout life areformed during their early years. Disparities associated withhousehold food insecurity and caregiver depressive symptoms disruptthese building blocks and can compromise children's health,resulting in lifelong negative consequences to their health andwell-being. Evidence presented here illustrates that family stress is associated with child health risks and that WIC attenuates bothfamily stress and the child health risks associated with householdfamily stress. To reduce disparities and promote children's health, WIC is anexcellent investment. The next steps are to examine why someWIC-eligible families do not participate in the program and toexamine innovative strategies of implementing nutritionalcounseling." Large segments of the USA's population undergo economic hardship -poverty undermines children's well-being and physical health, whichin turn raises the risk of subsequent poor adult health, limitedhuman capital and social disparities. Families with limited financial resources have to make hard choicesregarding their basic needs, such as housing, energy, health care,and food - this can result in emotional distress and frustration. When emotional stress coincides with other stressors, caregivingpractices may be negatively affected, which can impact on thewell-being of children. Often just emotional stress on its own canhave the same impact. The current economic downturn has increased the prevalence of foodinsecurity, and also threatened the well-being of young children,resulting in a higher rate of malnutrition , childhood hospitalizations, poor overall health, and delayeddevelopment. WIC provides nutrition and food counseling for nearly 9,000,000 women, infants andchildren across the USA. The researchers looked at how WIC participation related to familystress and the health of children in 26,950 families which wereeligible for WIC - the children, aged from 3 to 7 years, attended 7urban medical centers across the nation. They found that eligible mothers who did not receive WIC had higherrates of food insecurity and maternal depression, compared to theircounterparts who did receive WIC. They also found that whenmaternal depression and food insecurity was present, children inWIC-receiving households fared better than other kids from eligiblefamilies whose households did not receive WIC. Written by Christian Nordvist Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Self-Aligning Ball Bearing Manufacturer , Thrust Roller Bearing Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Spherical Roller Bearing today!
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