Obesity fear as families pile up toddlers’ plates
MOST parents in Scotland are overfeeding their toddlers with near-adult portion sizes.
Experts have warned that more than three-quarters of parents routinely serve up meals larger than recommended for pre-school children.
Families in Scotland, where around one in three children is overweight or obese when they start primary school, are also more likely to give toddlers junk food than those in England, research from the Infant and Toddler Forum has found.
Concerningly, close to a quarter of parents also use food as a ‘treat’ to calm their children down when they are upset.
With more than a quarter of a million children in Scotland overweight or obese, there are concerns this could encourage youngsters to comfort-eat when they are older.
Gill Harris, a child psychologist and member of the Infant and Toddler Forum of child health experts, said: ‘Most toddlers are naturally better than older children and adults at regulating their food intake. They usually only eat what they need.
‘Portion size is critical. It’s one of the main ways in which, as parents, we can inadvertently override children’s self-regulation systems. Larger portions form our acceptance about what is an appropriate amount to eat and this becomes the “norm”. In other words, how much you offer often determines how much your child will eat and habits learned in early life generally tend to persist.’
Parents of children aged one to four were shown pictures of portion sizes and asked to identify how much they give their children. Families in Scotland routinely heaped plates too full.
Judy More, a paediatric dietitian and forum member, said: ‘Practical advice for parents on appropriate portion sizes for toddlers has been lacking, so it’s not surprising our survey revealed a significant lack of understanding about how much to feed toddlers.’
The survey, of 1,000 parents across the UK and 80 in Scotland, came as charity Cancer Research UK launched a campaign to stop junk food being advertised before the 9pm watershed.
Children aged eight to 12 were interviewed and in response to two TV commercials, they used words such as ‘tempting’ and ‘addictive’, while one child said they wanted to ‘lick the screen’.
Watching a TV advert for sweets, a Primary Five girl from North Lanarkshire said: ‘It makes you feel as if you’re happy and excited and it feels like you want to try it because the guy’s dancing in it because he’s eaten it and it tastes good.’
Linda Bauld, the charity’s cancer prevention expert, based at the University of Stirling, said: ‘Almost four in five adults in Scotland support restrictions on junk food advertising during the hours when children are most likely to see this type of promotion.’