A nine year study has found a link between childhood temper tantrums and and increased risk of obesity. Researchers monitored 150 babies from birth till the age of nine. 25% became overweight at 9 years of age, 9% were quite obese.
You can read about this study in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Two factors seem to influence a child�s likelihood of being/becoming overweight. If the parents are overweight and if the child throws temper tantrums over food when he/she is 2-5 years old. Children between 2-5 years of age who throw temper tantrums about food have triple the risk of becoming overweight.
Dr. W. Stewart Agras, Psychiatry and Behavioral Professor, Stanford University, says that many parents use food as a bribe to try to win over their bad tempered child. He adds that bribing children when they have a tantrum is not doing the child any good.
The researchers also found that 2-5 year olds who took fewer and shorter naps during the day were more likely to be fatter.
We all know that food is an emotional soother. As adults, many of us turn to �comfort foods� when we are upset. Many parents who bribe their angry kids with food are probably comfort eating themselves.
The researchers said that the occasional food tantrum is nothing for a parent to worry about. Only 19% of the children in their study had frequent food tantrums. The children who throw the occasional food tantrum are not more likely to become overweight.
Is it in our genes?
The researchers found that by the end of their study 64% of children who had overweight parents were overweight themselves, whereas only 16% of children whose parents were of normal weight were overweight.
Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Weight Management Center, said "We've always known that children whose parents are overweight are more likely to be overweight," notes Fernstom. "You almost never see a child who is overweight with thin parents."
What the scientists did not know (and still do not know) was whether this association of overweight parents = overweight children is due to genes or lifestyle.
Another problem the researchers came across was parents concerned that their �normal weight� child was too thin, they would try to fatten them up. Parents were seeing normal weight as too thin and overweight as normal.
Many experts say that parents should give their children some independence on deciding what and how much they eat. Making all their decisions for them could be undermining their abilities to control and manage their food intake themselves.
Some experts are not sure what conclusion to make of this study. A bit like a chicken and egg situation. Are the temper tantrums making the child fat? Are the parents� reactions to the temper tantrums making the child fat? Is a bad tempered child a child that is predisposed to getting fat or is a spoilt pampered child the one who will get fat?
Many say that if you fall for the tantrum and give the child a food treat to calm him/her down you are teaching the child to use food as a comfort. Others say that a temper tantrum about food is a sign that the child has an eating disorder and is more likely to get fat.