The Deseret News – Jennifer Graham
“If you give a crying child a cookie, could you be setting her up for a lifelong weight problem? New research out of Norway suggests that may be happening when well-meaning parents offer food to children as a means of soothing them. The study, published in April in the journal Child Development, found that children who were offered food to calm them at age 4 were more likely to be comforted by food at ages 6, 8 and 10, creating a potentially damaging habit that could follow them through adolescence and adulthood. Moreover, parents of children who were easily soothed by food were more likely to employ that strategy again in the future, creating a self-perpetuating cycle, the researchers said.”(more)