Working moms may be the reason children are gaining weight

Research published in the January/February issue of the journal Child Development claims that working moms may be the ones to blame for childhood obesity.

The research examined body-mass index (BMI) records and found that the more years a mother spends working after giving birth to her child, the more that child’s BMI rises.

In the past three decades, obesity among children has increased by 300 percent. In addition to that, 70 percent of the working mothers have young children. It is not surprising to be concerned by these data considering childhood obesity is still on the rise.

The researchers made a disclaimer explaining that their study is in no way a bashing of employed mothers with young kids. There are other factors that can contribute to childhood obesity like the availability of cheap prepared food that kids eat and the children’s preference of spending time doing activities that require less physical movements such as watching television and staying in front of the computer.

The study reiterated that while the increase in the BMI of kids with working moms are statistically significant, it is no cause for panic for employed mothers because the excess weight is only around one pound.