We all stare at the pudgy baby in the grocery cart and wonder what the mother must be feeding their little cutie-pie. While some tots are roly-poly because they’re maxed out on mom’s milk machine, others get chubby for other reasons.

According to a new study, adding cereal into the bottle may be putting kids on the fast-track to childhood obesity.

The study, presented at the Pediatric Academic Society’s annual meeting on April 28, looks at why some moms overfeed their babies and who these mothers are.

It seems like a no-brainer. Everyone assumes that kids get fat because they eat too much. Adding cereal to the bottle may kick-start the problem because it tends to cause overfeeding, and overfeeding leads to excess weight gain. It’s a practice researchers say should be discouraged.

In a study of 254 mothers, 24 percent said they put cereal in the bottle. “Mothers with depressive symptoms were 15 times more likely to add cereal than mothers without depressive symptoms. Those are pretty big numbers.

The findings, reported in Science Daily on April 29, demonstrate that stressors prevalent in low-income households, such as depression, single parenthood, and infant behavioral changes are more likely to be associated with feeding practices that encourage obesity.

Sometimes overfeeding occurs when people want to make sure their kids are not adversely affected by poverty. They’re afraid they won’t get enough to eat and overcompensate. Maybe it’s the stress of having to work crazy hours and trying to get baby to sleep through the night. Or because Mom mistakenly thinks adding formula to the bottle makes the baby feel happy and nurtured.

Whatever the reason, researchers say putting cereal into the baby’s bottle is not a good idea. Baby’s don’t need it. Instead, they suggest, “It is important to provide support for parents related to healthy feeding practices if we are to end the epidemic of childhood obesity.”

Read the whole story in Science Daily at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120429081136.htm

Take a look around my website for all kinds of info and mom-related stories: https://familyfieldguide.com/.