Lack of access to adequate food for an active and healthy life may affect maternal food choices, increasing the risk for children to become overweight, according to researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Boston Medical Center (BMC). The results of this study were presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Francisco.

“What we have is a paradox. Mothers in households where food availability was either erratic or scarce had approximately twice the odds of giving their child food to boost calories or to stimulate the appetite,” explained lead researcher Emily Feinberg, Sc.D., Assistant Professor, Maternal and Child Health at Boston University School of Public Health and Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center. Our findings suggest that the mothers may choose to provide high-calorie nutritional supplements to children and that may increase the risk for a child to become overweight, specifically in households where there are food shortages,” added Feinberg.

As part of the study researchers interviewed 248 mothers of normal and overweight Haitian and African-American children, ages 2 -  12. The researchers found 28 percent of the sample experienced an overall shortage of food or periodic interruptions, with significantly more Haitian families experiencing food scarcity. Routine use of calorie boosters including, Carnation Instant Breakfast and Pediasure, and perceived appetite stimulants were used by 43 percent and 12 percent of the sample respectively.

This is one of the first studies to focus on how food insecurity may influence maternal choices of food that increase the risk for a child to become overweight. Although a lack of an adequate food supply has been associated with becoming overweight in adult women and certain subpopulations of children, it has not been well studied among low income, ethnically diverse black children.

The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting in the largest international meeting that focuses on research in child health. The PAS consists of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ambulatory Pediatric Association, American Pediatric Society, and Society for Pediatric Research.