Stopping Kids From Overeating

Are we setting up our children for a lifetime of weight problems and unhealthy eating?

Apparently, yes, according to the first study on how serving sizes influence a young child's food intake.

The study by nutrition professors at Penn State University, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the university's Child Development Program ate about the same amount of food when served small, medium and large portions of macaroni and cheese at lunchtime.

However, the older preschoolers ignored their "internal hunger cues" and ate more than necessary, nutrition professor Barbara Rolls says. When given a large (2-cup) portion of macaroni and cheese that exceeded the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended serving size, the 5- and 6-year-old preschoolers ate more macaroni and cheese and likewise consumed more milk, carrot sticks and applesauce at lunch.

"It's clear from this study that serving children larger-than-recommended portions encourages them to eat more than is necessary or prudent for their long-term good health," says Rolls.

Americans have to come to expect "super-sized" food items in stores and restaurants, but larger portions could be a factor in the rising number of children and adults who are overweight, the study says. Some 58 million American adults and 4.7 million children are overweight, according to the National Institutes of Health. Overeating can lead to obesity that can trigger life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes, certain types of cancer and coronary heart disease.

What can you do?

As any parent knows, mealtime can turn into wartime when you try telling your children how much they should be eating. Here are some tips from nutrition experts on how you can make peace and still give your kids healthy food:

• Go family style. Adults and children do better at controlling portion sizes when they serve themselves. Children as young as 3 or 3-and-a-half can serve themselves, Rolls says. The dinner table should not be a battleground. Parents are responsible for bringing in healthy food, and putting it on the table. Then parents need to stop and give children the responsibility for deciding what, how much and even if they will eat," says licensed nutritionist Frances Berg, editor of the Healthy Weight Journal and author of several books on eating.

• Talk to your children so they can learn from their own bodies how much to eat and to stop eating when they feel full. Berg says too much parental control over how much a child eats can be a factor in causing eating disorders. "We need to help children trust their own bodies," Berg says.

• There are no bad foods. Instead of forbidding your kids to eat sweets, provide them with nutritious foods first. Stopping kids from snacking just before dinner is wrong if they are munching on healthy foods, says cookbook author Robin Vitetta-Miller.

• Be aware of portion sizes. At home, start with reasonable serving sizes, and keep food for second helpings in the kitchen, not at the dinner table. When you're eating out, don't feel like you have to finish everything on your plate, says Rolls. "People need to get out of the habit of having a lot of food for not a lot of money. It's something that fast-food providers get us to think about," says Rolls. "It's really not good value in the long run. It's better to make a decision to go for smaller portions."

Previous studies at Penn State have found that adults, like children, also overeat when served large portions, Rolls says. As a parent, you can set a good example for your children by eating a variety of healthy foods in moderate portions, experts say.

If you're eating because of emotional reasons, such as anxiety, loneliness or depression, try exercising, talking to a friend or doing relaxation techniques, says Rolls in her nutrition book, Volumetrics: Feeling Full on Fewer Calories.

"If you are trying to manage your weight, you need to get more tuned in to what your body is telling you," Rolls says. "Food, in the long run, is not going to be the solution if you're bored or stressed."

Prevention is the best strategy. The Bogalusa study (the pediatric version of the Framingham study) showed that overweight children are likely to become obese adults. Approximately 70 percent of children with BMI above 95th percentile had adult obesity. In contrast, only seven percent of children less than the 50th percentile for weight became obese adults. Adults who were overweight in childhood have higher levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and insulin, with low HDL cholesterol levels and increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus. Cumulative lifetime risk of coronary heart disease based on percentile ranking for each risk factor (less than 50th or greater than 95th percentile) was greatest among those who were persistently overweight from early childhood, although risk factors increased when obesity developed at any age.

Sources:

Serving Portion Size Influences 5-Year-Old But Not 3-Year-Old Children's Food Intake. JADA. February 2000

American Dietetic Association

5 A Day for Better Health

American Obesity Association

Fitness for Youth

Freedman DS,Khan LK,Dietz WH,et al. Relationship of childhood obesity to coronary heart disease risk factors in adulthood: the Bogalusa heart study. Pediatrics. 2001;108:712- 718

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.