Rachel Myr wrote:
> The authors of the study certainly don't make sweeping claims for the
> 'weaning style' being the sole factor involved in determining child
> BMI. They made an effort to control for confounders and these are
> well illuminated in the article, which seems to be freely accessible
> on line.
> Rather than responding to mass media renditions of the press release,
> I encourage you to read the article itself.
Sorry - didn't have time to reply to this until now.
I'm a bit puzzled by your response, as I'm not sure why you would assume
I didn't read the study? I did read it, and I can't see anywhere in it
where the authors adjusted for differences in handling of eating
behaviours subsequent to weaning. That's a pretty obvious and massive
confounder - the parents who are chatting away with others on the BLW
websites are also the ones getting reassurance that the best way to
handle toddler mealtimes is by not making it a big deal and not pushing
food, the ones exchanging ideas on healthy recipes and healthy eating,
the ones getting advice and reinforcement on different ways of handling
eating battles well beyond the initial weaning period. They may well be
reading other websites on food and/or positive discipline, either via
links from the BLW forums themselves or simply because people who check
out one on-line site for suggestions of how to parent are likely to
check out others. All these things could be affecting the way they deal
with feeding their children, and it's perfectly possible, and in fact
highly likely, that these differing parental behaviours years down the
line, rather than the BLW itself, could account for the differences seen
in obesity rates.
Even apart from the effect of being on an internet forum, it's also
highly likely that the parents who are more laid-back about letting
their children choose what to eat or not eat rather than taking the
'clear your plate and eat it all up, there's a good boy/girl' are the
ones who are more likely to choose BLW rather than traditional methods -
sure, BLW might contribute to the laid-back attitude, but it's also true
that the reverse is likely to be the case and that the healthy laid-back
attitude towards their child's eating is what leads parents to consider
BLW. None of this, as far as I can see, has been allowed for in the
study, which doesn't seem to have asked about *current* eating or
discipline-related behaviours on the parents' part at all.
I agree that if this study and others like it help shift the very rigid
mindset you describe among HVs in your country then that's all to the
good, but I'm concerned that this kind of research might just lead to a
flip-over to the reverse rigid attitude - that BLW is the only way to go
because spoonfeeding and purées have been 'proved' to increase obesity
rates. Much as I'm in favour of BLW on practical grounds, I really
don't want to see that or anything else pushed on grounds of being
better for the children unless we have considerably better evidence than
we currently have. This sort of study can chip away at the confidence
of parents - oh, no, yet another thing I did wrong, is my child doomed
to be fat because I spoonfed him? - and I don't like to see that happen
on poor evidence.
Best wishes,
Sarah Vaughan
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