No link between obesity and daycare, says study
Posted on: 13/Oct/2016 9:28:30 AM
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital has said that Working parents who send their children to daycare no longer need to worry about whether this puts their kids at increased risk for obesity. The study looked at data on more than 10,000 youngsters and found no connection between daycare and obesity.
Speaking about this, the researchers said, Our study casts doubt on previously held beliefs that non-parental childcare is associated with a higher risk of obesity. The current study, like those before it, didn’t randomly assign some kids to parental care and others to daycare, which would be the most foolproof way to assess whether the setting or provider influences obesity risk. It could also be that there are underlying factors that differ between childcare arrangements, such as nutritional quality or feeding practices in both the home as well as in childcare facilities or differences in motivations behind parents’ childcare decisions.
These underlying factors could be what influence children’s weight. Even though the researchers accounted for many factors that can influence obesity risk and may help explain any differences in weight between kids in daycare and kids cared for at home by parents, it’s still possible the analysis might have overlooked some important variables.
Experts say, In the complex life of today`s child, it`s hard to show that any one factor – even one as important as child care attendance - causes obesity. Add to that the fact that child cares are very different from one another in terms the foods children eat and how active children are. And parents who have the resources to make such choices are different in many ways from the parents who don`t have those resources. I`m not surprised that the authors didn`t find a straightforward relationship.
To the extent parents have access to multiple childcare options, they should do their best to vet how healthy the food and drinks are and ensure children get plenty of physical activity during the day. There are often financial or logistical constraints that make true choice in that regard impossible. So the more important message is to society: we need to promote policies that improve quality standards so that no family has to choose between the health of the child and the affordability of the child care.
