Your child could have the habit of emotional eating

Children may overeat to deal with the stress they feel from their parents, says new study. Photo: Filepic

By imposing dietary restrictions or using food as a reward, parents could make their children more prone to overeating in response to emotional stress, according to a recent British study.

To investigate the development of emotional eating habits in young children, the researchers worked with 41 parent-child pairs. All of the children were between the ages of 3 and 5 at the start of the study, when each pair responded to a questionnaire on parental feeding practices and was observed while eating a normal lunch.