Refraining from watching television while eating could help reduce the child obesity rate.
A research team found pregnant women who watched television while eating were more likely to sit in front of it when feeding their baby, an American Academy of Pediatrics news release reported.
Watching television while eating can lead to unhealthy diet choices at any age.
"Reinforcing healthy media habits during pregnancy may help reduce infants' mealtime media exposure and impact long-term media habits in children," lead author Mary Jo Messito, MD, FAAP, said in the news release. "Reduction of mealtime TV viewing during pregnancy could be an important component in early childhood obesity prevention programs."
Researchers interviewed 189 women who were in their third trimester were asked if they watched television during mealtimes and then again when their infants were three months old.
The team found 71 percent of pregnant women reported watching television with some meals and 33 percent admitted their children were exposed to media while eating.
The researchers determined mothers who watched television during meals while they were pregnant were five times more likely to expose their children to TV while eating than those who did not. Mothers who were under the age of 25 and did not exclusively breastfeed were also more likely to watch television while feeding their infant.
"Few studies have identified how mealtime TV viewing habits begin in infancy, and what maternal characteristics during pregnancy and early infancy are associated with them," Doctor Messito, project director of the Starting Early study said in the news release. "Identifying specific maternal behaviors and characteristics associated with child TV viewing during meals will help early childhood obesity prevention efforts seeking to promote responsive feeding and limit TV exposure during infancy."
The study data was obtained through the "childhood obesity prevention intervention for low-income Hispanic families at Bellevue Hospital Center/NYU School of Medicine," the news release reported.
