Childhood Obesity: Dads more likely than moms to impact

A father’s use of restaurants and his perceptions of family meals carry more weight, so to speak, than mothers’, according to a Texas AgriLife Research study, published recently in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

“Dads who think that dinner time is a special family time certainly do not see a fast-food restaurant as an appropriate place for that special family time, so this means that his kids are spending less time in those places."

"Dads who have no trouble eating food in a fast-food restaurant are going to be more likely to have kids who do so,” said Dr. Alex McIntosh, AgriLife Research sociologist.

Childhood obesity study points to father’s role

New research indicates that father’s are more likely than mother’s to have an impact on childhood obesity. A study by Texas AgriLife Research showed that lenient fathers allow their children more trips to fast-food restaurants which have been linked to obesity in children. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips)

The study began as a 15-month look at parents’ use of time and how that impacted meal choices. It aimed at the difference between fast-food and full-service restaurants because numerous studies have shown a correlation between fast-food consumption and weight gain.

Of particular interest for the research, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was parental choice of restaurants as a connection to childhood obesity, McIntosh said.

Almost as an afterthought, the researchers decided to ask children in these families also to record what they ate and whether it was at home or out. If a meal was eaten out, the name of the restaurant was not required.

“It never occurred to me that we would have data on them eating out and where they were eating out. But the kids — if they said they ate out, they always wrote down where they ate by the name of the restaurant,” McIntosh said. “So it was just a matter of tracking down information about the restaurant to find out if they were full-service or more like a fast-food place.”

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Learning Difficulties: Exposure to Pesticides in Womb

Babies exposed to high levels of pesticides while in the womb may suffer from learning problems, a new study suggests.

The study focused on a chemical called permethrin, one of the pyrethroid pesticides, commonly used in agriculture and to kill termites, fleas and household bugs, says lead author Megan Horton of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health. 

Most of the pregnant women in this New York-based study were exposed by spraying for cockroaches.

Permethrin — among the most commonly detected pesticides in homes — is being used more often today as older organophosphorous pesticides are phased out because of concerns that they harm brain development, says Horton, whose study is being published today in Pediatrics.

Researchers measured 348 pregnant women's exposures by asking them to wear backpack air monitors, Horton says. Researchers followed the women and their children for three years.

Children exposed to the highest pesticide levels before birth were three times as likely to have a mental delay compared to children with lower levels, the study says. 

Children with the highest prenatal exposures also scored about 4 points lower on an intelligence test, the Bayley Mental Developmental Index. That test has a mean score of 100, with most people's scores falling within 15 points of that range.

That's about the same intelligence loss caused by lead, says Philip Landrigan, a pediatrics professor and environmental health expert at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Pyrethroid pesticides kill bugs by "being toxic to the developing brain," Landrigan says. The results are "very believable and should be taken seriously," Landrigan says.

Because the study is the first to link permethrin with brain damage, researchers need to conduct additional studies before concluding that the pesticide really harms the brain, says Mary Fox, an assistant professor at John Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Even without definitive data, however, Fox says it makes sense for pregnant women to reduce their exposure to bug sprays and other pesticides.

To control bugs, for example, she suggests fixing water leaks, keeping food tightly covered and, if necessary, spraying outside instead of inside the home.

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