The UK has now hopped on to the blame the mothers for working bandwagon, notably after it was done in the US.



“Researchers at the Institute of Child Health in London followed 13,000 children to the age of three. They found for every 10 hours worked the risk of being overweight rose once household income topped £11,000, the International Journal of Obesity said.“ This claims that 23% of the plus size children were overweight or obese by the AGE OF THREE????



Supposedly, “For example, parental time constraints could increase a child’s consumption of snack foods and / or increase television use.” Um, what? Since when does a 3 year old choose those activities themselves? Most certainly aren’t capable of preparing their own meals, and even in nannycare, most such meals would be planned until a child is 6 or 7.



Pardon the language, but I call BULLSHIT. Children have varying growth patterns, and it is simply not possible to tell if a child is obese by the age of 3. I don’t think it’s even appropriate to make that call until the age of 8, because there’s a whole lot about genetic metabolism that doesn’t reveal itself during the toddler years.



It seems - since this targets middle class high income earners - that it is a way of guilting mothers into staying home, under the highly manipulative tack of “your kids will get fat.” Notably, there was no study of what happened with families with a stay-at-home or single father was making the nutritional decisions.