Women's erratic eating affects children

10 months ago 26th Dec 09:00

Child obesity can be prevented before birth, according to a leading food campaigner.

Susie Orbach has criticised plans to tackle child obesity in primary schools, suggesting that further training for widwives would instead help mothers to deal with their own food issues before their child is born.

Mothers themselves are troubled by erratic eating, fear of food, preoccupation with body size, frequent dieting and bingeingFood Campaigner, Susie Orbach

Research from an EarlyBird study revealed that 25% of children aged four to five years old are overweight, while 10% are obese.

This comes in conjunction with England’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson’s latest report, which asked: “Are parents of obese children bad parents?” and “Should fat patients go to the back of the queue for NHS treatment?”

But Orbach believes that the issues are more complex than this, and implies that mothers aren’t at fault for allowing their children to eat excessively, as many women have problematic relationships with food themselves.

In a letter to Sir Donaldson, Orbach said: “Mothers want to give their children all that is best and most reassuring. But in many cases, this doesn’t happen because mothers themselves are troubled by erratic eating, fear of food, preoccupation with body size, frequent dieting and bingeing”.

She says that if women learn to control their own eating habits, they can set a better example for their children. However, mothers often use food as an incentive to reinforce good behaviour from children, and children tend to mirror the eating habits of their parents.