In the Womb or in the Home?
Posted On May 17, 2010
Here’s the headline: If mom develops diabetes while she’s pregnant, the kids are more likely to be overweight by the time they’re 11 years old.
They’re suggesting that there’s a link between the womb, and childhood obesity 11 years later.
Really?
It’s hard to know what to make of this headline: Does that mean that the mom is causing Johnny to be fat … 11 years later? I don’t think so.
It more likely means that, on average, if mom develops diabetes she probably has the eating habits and behaviors that produce that condition.
Right? That’s a no brainer.
But if she has that tendency, she’ll still have it after she’s delivered the baby. The fact that the child tends, statistically, to get overweight and obese like the parent, says less about the womb than the home — less about biochemistry than psychology.
Our kids watch us, learn from us, model their behavior after ours. That’s why it’s so important to eat well, be active, blah blah, blah.
Combating childhood obesity may start in the womb
| Reuters
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