It’s become a bit of a cliche in pop psychology that all that is wrong in a person’s life can be traced back to their mother.
You can add another thing to the list, alas- causing obesity by forging a “poor” mother-toddler bond. A new study published in the January 2012 issue of the medical journal Pediatrics explores a newly discovered link between emotional security and a predisposition to seek food for comfort, leading to issues with food and diet. The study monitored children at the ages of 15 months, 2, and 3 years of age, videotaping them interacting with their mothers during 15-minute long taped sessions.
Reviewing the tapes, the study monitored factors like “maternal sensitivity,” which is defined in part as the ability to respond with “comfort, consistency, and warmth,” and researchers noted whether the mother-child pairs demonstrated “secure attachment.” According to the results of the study, the tots that “had moms with low sensitivity to their needs and who overall had the poorest-quality relationship with their moms were twice as likely to be obese at age 15.”
University of Miami pediatrics professor Alan Delamater commented to WebMD about the study and its implications:
“It is likely that these children begin eating to soothe themselves starting at very young ages. We know that packing on excess weight or fat at an early age makes someone more likely to be overweight or obese as they grow up.”
Delamater explains:
What is missing is the “black box,” he says. “We need to figure out how the early mother-child relationship affects risk for becoming overweight or obese.”
