There’s fat risk in putting kids in crèches

Study says children in care of people other than parents are more likely to become obese

NEW DELHI: Working mothers who leave children in other people’s care could be pushing them to obesity.

According to a new study published in the reputed American health journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, infants who are regularly in the care of someone other than a parent are more likely to have unfavourable feeding practices and weight than those cared only by parents.

“Infants who initiated childcare younger than three months were less likely to have been breastfed and more likely to have received early introduction of solid foods than those in parental care,” the authors wrote explaining the reasons.

The study is contrary to the popular Indian belief that babies left with caretakers become weak and thin.

“In places such as crèche, caretakers give a bottle of milk to children the moment they start crying, while a mother would use a 1,000 other ways to pacify the child. Formula food too makes children bulkier. However, in India, caretakers often dilute formula food and milk, making many children weak,” Anjali Mathur, senior pediatrician at Delhi’s Moolchand Hospital, said.

Childcare has been associated with positive development in cognition (thinking, learning and memory), language, social and emotional realms and academics. In recent times, with more mothers joining the workforce, a large number of infants receive some form of childcare by persons other than parents in the first year of their lives.

The authors analysed data gathered during home visits to 8,150 nine-month-olds in the US and found that 55.3% infants received regular childcare from someone other than a parent. Among those surveyed, half were in full-time childcare, 40.3% began childcare as young as less than 3 months, 39.3% between 3 and 5.9 months and 20.7% began at 6 months or older.

Infants in part-time childcare gained 175 grams more during nine months than infants cared for by parents. Those who were cared for by relatives gained 162 grams more, had a higher rate of early introduction to solid foods (a risk factor for weight gain) and were less likely to begin breastfeeding.

“Our study provides new evidence that childcare influences both infant feeding practices and risk of overweight at least during infancy,” the authors concluded.

Another study in the same journal said adults who received better nutrition in early childhood may score better in intellectual tests even if they did not attend school for long.
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