Kids have a lot of energy, and no matter the number of kids or years of experience a parent has, keeping their children entertained 24/7 can be quite a challenge. However, imposing the importance of keeping children occupied, Aston University published a paper late last year, stating that boredom can actually cause children to overeat, resulting in obesity.
Boredom Causes Overeating
As per the study conducted by Dr Rebecca Ann Stone, kids as young as four tend to eat 79% more calories when they’re bored. Additionally, emotional kids whose parents used food as a coping mechanism for them ate five times more calories when bored.
Her research found that on average, kids eat 95 kcal more calories out of boredom, even when they didn’t feel hungry, compared to kids in a neutral mood who ate 59 kcal. This provides additional weightage to the findings of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, which reported that 32.5% of Indians are addicted to food. It is concerning as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute stated, ‘Overweight and obesity can develop over time when you consume more calories than you use.’
The study found that one big contributor to this phenomenon is parental feeding habits which can induce emotional feeding in their kids. Simply put, sometimes, to help their kids deal with negative emotions like sadness or boredom, parents often offer food as a way to soothe them. This teaches the kids to turn to food when they feel low. Such kids exhibited consuming 104 kcal when feeling bored and only consumed 21 kcal when not.
Emotional Feeding
In a press release by Aston University, commenting on the findings of her study, Dr Stone said, “If children are eating this many more calories during one instance of boredom induced in a laboratory (a four-minute period), given that boredom is a commonly experienced emotion in children, the potential for excess calorie intake in response to being bored across one day, one week, or one year, is potentially very significant in a food abundant environment.”
She added that it is crucial for kids to learn how to sit with boredom as it fosters a sense of self and creativity. So parents should avoid helping their kids curb boredom by eating to curb their habit of emotional feeding.
Also Read: Boredom can Evoke Creativity in Kids
“Although it is tempting to use food as a tool to comfort children, research suggests that emotional feeding might lead to greater emotional eating in the future. It is important that parents and caregivers are aware that this short-term fix could create future challenges,” said the study supervisor, Prof Claire Farrow.
In conclusion, parents need to help their kids deal with their boredom without turning to food or any other unhealthy coping mechanism. This will not only save them from the risk of obesity but also strengthen their emotional resilience when they grow up to be adults.
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