BE A GOOD EATING MODEL

The kids are watching

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Preschoolers pay a lot of attention to what their parents say and do, and a study of mothers and preschoolers says this applies to what the kids eat and how active the kids are. Researchers at Duke Medicine in North Carolina saw this in data on 190 kids ages 2 to 5.

Mothers reported family ideas about eating and activity, whether the parents role-modeled good eating and activity, and what the kids ate during the week. The kids wore devices that recorded how active they were.

Marissa Stroo says that, when the parents did better, the kids did better.

“The overall message may be that most parents could probably improve their behaviors and that by doing so, their children may benefit.”

The study in the International Journal of Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.