Mother's Behavior at the Dinner Table influences Child's Eating Habits

Small children learn everything through observing elders, particularly their parents. Explaining this point, a new study found mother's eating habits and attitudes at the dinner table influencing a preschooler and predicting whether he/she is at higher risks of obesity or not, a new study said.

Researcher Halley Morrison found mothers who become tempted with the sight or smell of food, having children who consume more food compared to others. Apart from that, mothers with strict rules regarding food, including forcing the child to finish food and mothers who stuff themselves with more food into an already full stomach, more likely to have picky eaters than others.

"Like mother, like child. This is especially true when kids are so young their environment is primarily based on what their parents are doing," Morrison said, in a news release. "The problem is no longer food scarcity, but too much food. It doesn't cost families extra to change their behavior."

The study that appeared in the journal Appetite, base its findings on a survey conducted as part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service Children's Nutrition Research Center study. The survey included 222 preschoolers and their parents. All the participants belonged to African-American and Latino ethnic groups.

According to the researchers from Washington State University, mothers can develop a healthy eating style among their children by displaying good eating habits at the dinner table.

"When a preschooler says they are full and still has food on his or her plate, it's important for parents to listen and trust the child," Tom Power, chair of the WSU Department of Human Development, said. "Limit the availability of high-calorie low-nutrient foods, like sweets, but don't turn them into forbidden fruits."

The findings come at a time when more than 17 percent of children and teens in the U.S. are obese.