Short course: Moms bossiness tied to kids weight

Moms bossiness tied to kids weight

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Moms bossiness tied to kids weight

Mothers who push their toddlers to eat more at snack time may end up with slightly chubbier children by the age of three,according to a US study. Researchers,whose findings appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,said that such parents might end up overriding their childs ability to listen to their bodys natural satiety signals the brains way of saying its time to stop eating.

It wasnt clear if parental pushiness actually led to excess weight gain,and the weight differences in the study were small. But a number of previous studies have pointed to links between controlling mealtime behaviour by parents and their childrens risk of being overweight.

Parents often worry their child might not be eating enough, said Julie Lumeng,at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,who led the study.

Overall,mothers who were the most intrusive during the snacks tended to have heavier children,even when factors such as family income and race were taken into account.

Intrusive in this study meant pushing toddlers to eat rather than offering food,such as saying,You know you like it,take another bite, Lumeng said.

Smoking linked to high psoriasis risk

NEW YORK: Smokers have an increased risk of developing the chronic skin condition psoriasis,and that appears to be true both for people who currently smoke as well as past smokers,according to a US study. The findings,based on a study of thousands of people and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology,do not prove that smoking causes psoriasis in some people but it is clear the smoking came before the skin condition, said senior researcher Abrar Qureshi. For now,smoking seems to be a risk factor for new-onset psoriasis, added Qureshi,at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. Experts believe psoriasis is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the bodys own cells,and some studies have suggested that smokers are more vulnerable,possibly because smoking can affect immune activity. But most research has looked at people only at one point in time,which makes it hard to be sure. For the current study,researchers used data from three large,long-running studies of US health professionals,following nearly 1,86,000 men and women for 12 to 20 years. Of those,2,410 developed psoriasis. People who were current smokers at the studys start were almost twice as likely as lifelong non-smokers to develop psoriasis. Past smokers had a 39 percent higher risk than non-smokers.