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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