New York, Oct, 8 - Mothers who worry about having enough food for their families are more likely to give their children "compensatory foods," such as high-energy food supplements and perceived appetite stimulants, new research published in Pediatrics shows.
"These practices may serve as a buffer to get their child through periodic food shortages," Dr. Emily Feinberg of the Boston University School of Public Health, the lead researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.
In 2006, she and her colleagues note, 15.6 percent of U.S. families with children experienced food insecurity, defined as worrying about food, not having enough food or food of adequate quality, or having to rely on food "acquired through socially unacceptable means."
Food insecurity is known to be related to being overweight among adult women, they add, but its relationship with overweight children is not clear.
To investigate, Feinberg and her team surveyed 306 urban African-American and Haitian-American mothers whose children ranged in age from 2 to 13 years. Among black families, they note, both food insecurity and childhood obesity are more common than in the general population.
The researchers looked at five compensatory feeding practices that mothers might use to cope with food insecurity and might also contribute to their children being overweight. These included pressuring children to eat, restricting access to certain foods, using high-energy supplements, using added sugar, and giving children appetite stimulants such as vitamins and teas.
Twenty-eight percent of the households in the study were food insecure, with the Haitian-American families more likely to report food insecurity than the African-American families. Overall, 25 percent of families reported using high-energy supplements such as PediaSure, Carnation Instant Breakfast or Malta; 13 percent used added sugars; and 13 percent used added stimulants.
Mothers in food insecure families were twice as likely to give their children high-energy supplements, such as PediaSure or Carnation Instant Breakfast, and three times as likely to give them appetite stimulants. They were also roughly twice as likely to pressure children to eat and to add sugar to a child's beverages. However, the link between these practices and food insecurity didn't reach statistical significance.
While there was no evidence in the current study that any of the feeding practices contributed to the children being overweight, Feinberg noted, they are likely to create an environment that "doesn't foster optimal weight." What's more, she added, high-energy supplements and appetite stimulants can be very expensive.
Based on the research, she added, physicians should ask parents about their access to food and whether or not there are times that they cannot obtain adequate food for their children. And when such questions reveal that a family is food insecure, Feinberg said, doctors should do what they can to connect the family to community food resources.
She and her colleagues would like to look at food insecurity and feeding practices in a more ethnically diverse group of families. "We imagine that among other ethnicities and cultures there may be differences in these practices that would be important to identify and to understand how they impact children's eating," Feinberg said.
"Given the current economic situation," she added, "I would expect that more families will be experiencing food insecurity and that they will be further stressed to think of ways to compensate for those times of periodic food shortage."