Source: consumeraffairs.com<\/p>\n
As recent studies have made clear, parents\u2019\u00a0lifestyles and eating habits\u00a0can have an impact on their children\u2019s health. Now, a new study has made an interesting discovery when it comes to childhood obesity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the researchers, children with no siblings are more likely to struggle with obesity than children with siblings, as healthy habits are more common when there\u2019s more than one child in a household.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNutrition professionals must consider the influence of family and siblings to provide appropriate and tailored nutrition education for families of young children,\u201d said researcher Chelsea L. Kracht, PhD. \u201cEfforts to help all children and families establish healthy eating habits and practices must be encouraged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers had 68 mothers and children participate in the study, 27 of whom had one child and 41 who had more than one child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mothers reported on what they and their children ate using two different methods. They kept their own food diaries to log all snacks, meals, and beverage choices over the course of three days and also completed the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity questionnaire, which gave the researchers a broader spectrum to evaluate their food choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After analyzing both of these responses, the researchers were able to give each family a score on the\u00a0Healthy Eating Index\u00a0as a way to determine how their choices ranked overall in comparison to recommended daily guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the study revealed that both children and their mothers were more likely to struggle with obesity in single-child households as opposed to mother-child pairings from multiple-child households.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These findings mirror what many previous researchers have found, which is that mothers\u2019 eating and activity habits can have a huge impact on their children\u2019s health. The findings indicate that mothers who are\u00a0healthier\u00a0are more likely to have children who are also healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moving forward, the researchers recommend that all parents, regardless of the number of kids they have, focus on practicing healthy eating habits, as doing so can be beneficial for kids\u2019 health in the\u00a0long term.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[451,843,273,51,222],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weight-loss-gain","tag-children","tag-food-habits","tag-health","tag-obesity","tag-researchers"],"yoast_head":"\n