In it authors followed 110 children at risk or with overweight or obesity for 8.5 years and tracked their weight and its association with weight-based teasing. They found that after adjusting and controlling for baseline sex, race, age, socio-economic status, BMI and fatmass, kids who reported the most teasing gained the most weight (p≤.007). Quantified, the authors found that the most teased kids' fat masses increased by 91% more per year (1.4lbs/yr) than those not reporting weight based teasing.
While it's important to note that causality can't be proven here, certainly these results fit with the notion that if any amount of teasing led kids to lose weight, we'd be seeing dramatic reductions in childhood obesity rates because weight is far and away the number one target of school based bullies, and even at home, 60% of kids with excess weight report being teased about same.
If you have a child with obesity, sadly you can rest assured that they'll receive plenty of shame, blame, fear, and bullying from the world around them, and if you're worried about your child's weight, instead of burdening them with it, ask yourself what you as a parent can do to help, where if nothing else, one thing for certain you can do is to make your home a safe space where weight is not something anyone's welcome to joke about or comment on.
(and if you live in Ottawa, and you have a child between the ages of 5 and 12 whose weight is concerning, and you're interested in our office's parent-centric, Ministry of Health funded, inter-professional, Family Reset childhood obesity treatment program feel free to call us at 613-730-0264 and book an appointment to chat)
Posts
