Science / Medicine : Parents’ Role in Weight Control

Overweight children have greater long-term success controlling their weight if their parents provide early support for exercising and eating right, researchers said last week. Ten years after participating in a weight-loss program as 6- to 12-year-olds, children whose parents got similar weight-control training were significantly less obese than those whose parents received less training, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

“We think the important finding is in the modeling,” said psychologist Leonard H. Epstein, head of the University of Pittsburgh’s Childhood Obesity Clinic and leader of the research team. “If you have children who you don’t want to eat potato chips, you can’t sit in front of them eating Ho-Hos.”

Epstein’s group also concluded that pre-adolescent weight loss had no effect on height development, contrary to the findings of several shorter-term studies.

Two other childhood obesity experts called Epstein’s results surprising because previous research has shown that fat children will grow into fat adults and that weight lost in treatment programs is quickly regained.

Those experts said further study is needed on whether treatment of obesity in childhood can produce effects that persist into young adulthood.