June's Summary

Question #1

The first question posed asked if people were surprised that having a father who was obese/overweight increased the odds of childhood obesity compared to having an obese/overweight mother. Many people were surprised and proposed that fathers being thought of as the stereotypical authority figures in the household could explain these results. Jen suggested that because of this assumption of the father’s role possibly he was the typical enforcer regarding how much to eat. John suggested that it would be interesting to see how much time each parent spends with the child during meal times and the working status of parents, these could both be factors to the results shown. Many people also mentioned fathers being associated with physical activity promoters, which could be a reason their BMI is associated with their child’s BMI.

Question #2

There was also a general consensus with the second question regarding the relationship between the father and child concerning diet quality and physical activity. The group mostly believed they would expect a stronger positive relationship between the physical activity habits of the father and his child compared to diet quality. Many people associated this with the stereotype of the father being the parent to rough and tumble with the children and encourage play. Vivian made a very good point that the relationship between diet quality and physical activity would vary depending on the family’s environment, socioeconomic status, culture, etc. Along with Vivian’s comment others stated how the relationships would be influenced by what the father’s valued. Gina and Carly both made comments explaining how if the father enjoyed eating healthy and participated in healthy eating than his children would be more likely to exhibit that behavior.

Question #3

The third question focused on the requirements of the study. The research required the father to spend “at least one meal a week” with their child in order for them to understand their child’s dietary habits. Many people in the group thought that this was not enough time spent during meals with one another for the father to have a full picture of his child’s diet quality. Amanda believed that this was a reasonable criterion. She explained how busy children and fathers are and how difficult it can be to get a family to eat a meal together. Vivian suggested a minimum of 3 meals per week including one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner meal. Vivian acknowledged this would be a difficult task but that it would be ideal for the father to see each meal to gather a full picture of his child’s dietary habits. Having the father present at more meals would allow him to record a more accurate 24 hour diet recall for his child.

Recommendations for practice

After reviewing the literature and discussing it is clear that dietitians need to recognize the factors contributing to an individual’s lifestyle choices. It is clear that values and habits influence health and in a child research has shown that they adopt most of these traits from their parents.  Dietitians have to acknowledge the critical determinants in order to properly help their clients.

By: Sophie