‘No clear patterns’ in child weight gain during pandemic

From May 2020 to September 2020, nearly one-third of parents who were surveyed reported that their children gained weight, but researchers did not find any “clear patterns” in home food environment changes.

“We’ve all seen that COVID-19 has drastically impacted so many factors that influence child and family nutrition,” Elizabeth L. Adams, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in cancer prevention and control at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nutrition.

Factors include “high unemployment rates and furloughs” that caused “financial burdens leading to drastic increases in child food insecurity,” as well as “food hoarding or stocking up on what are typically less healthful food items like nonperishable processed foods that are shelf-stable” in the early stages of stay-at-home orders, Adams said.

She added that “parents have also experienced tremendous amounts of stress during this pandemic,” including a greater responsibility to feed their children snacks and meals since they no longer received school-provided meals.

Adams and colleagues surveyed 433 parents (mean age, 40.4 years; 94.5% women) in May 2020 and September 2020 regarding home food environment, child feeding practices and whether their child had gained, lost or remained the same weight.

Among the study population, 30% of parents reported child weight gain, 7% reported child weight loss and 63% reported no weight change. The average weight gain was 9.6 pounds, according to the researchers.

Many parents reported being more concerned about their child being overweight from May 2020 to September 2020, but the researchers said there were no obvious patterns in home food environment changes among children who did vs. those who did not gain weight.

Furthermore, according to Adams, some of those weight changes could be attributable to normal developmental growth.

“Some of these children were naturally growing during this time period and thus putting on additional weight that was very natural and due to their developmental growth,” Adams said. “I think moving forward, we need to acknowledge any kind of weight gain with empathy during this time. So much changed in children and families’ lives that naturally promoted obesogenic behaviors.”

She encouraged physicians to acknowledge that “this is just a response that’s common during COVID-19,” and to move forward by promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors.