How parents provoke overeating in children: new findings from psychologists

Simply put, they may be nibbling on stress, sadness or even boredom rather than learning to manage feelings in other ways.

The results of the study were published by the scientific journal Appetite.

Experts from the University of North Florida (USA) conducted an online survey among 221 mothers of children aged four to five years old. The mothers were asked questions about how they feed their children: whether they offer them food if they are upset, whether they encourage them with sweets for good behaviour, etc. They also took into account how well the children themselves are able to cope with emotions - especially without consuming unnecessary food.

The researchers identified four strategies that can be triggers for overeating:

1. Eating as a way to calm down: when a child is given food to stop crying or worrying.
2. Eatingas a reward: for example, giving a sweet for a good grade or, conversely, withholding a treat as a punishment.
3. Emotional feeding: the child is given a treat during any confrontation, argument or other stress, even if he or she is not hungry.
4. Instrumental feeding: food is used as a 'control lever' to get the child to do what they want (or, conversely, to keep them from doing what they don't want).

It turned out that all four practices spoil children's ability to emotionally self-regulate. And when a child can not calmly live his feelings, the chances that he will begin to "eat" problems, markedly increased. In fact, if parents reinforce the habit of solving any feelings by eating, the child receives a clear signal: "Feel bad? Eat something sweet, and everything will go away".

As a result, these children may develop a strong tendency to overeat. Over time, this leads to risks of overweight and other health problems. Experts emphasise that it is much more useful to teach children to recognise their feelings and find ways to manage them without being "tied" to food - for example, by offering to draw, play or simply talk about what they are worried about.

Thus, the new study confirms that parents can unwittingly "program" their children to engage in unhealthy eating behaviours if they overuse food as a tool to solve emotional or behavioural problems.