How did maternal mood and eating habits during COVID-19 affect child feeding practices?

Published

2 years ago

April 28, 2023

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By Dr. Liji Thomas, MD Apr 28 2023 Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM

A recent study published in the Appetite Journal examined how maternal mood, body image, and eating concerns were related to perceived changes in feeding practices during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Study: Maternal mood, body image, and eating habits predict changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic . Image Credit: Emituu/Shutterstock.com Background

With the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many profound changes occurred in the normal lifestyle of people around the world.

This included business, workplace, school, sporting, and shopping activities. The feeding of children is another area that was impacted by pandemic-related changes to the mother's pattern of activity.

Using data from an online mothers' study, a recent study looked at how mood changes and the mother's body image were linked to changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Introduction

Prior research shows that the way children are habitually fed is deeply influenced by the parent's eating habits and emotions associated with eating.

In particular, when parents eat for comfort or restrict their food intake despite feeling hungry, they practice eating patterns unlinked to their internal hunger or satiety signals. This, in turn, is associated with similar non-responsive child feeding patterns. Importantly, these are reflected with adverse impacts on the parent's and child's mental and physical health and the child's future eating habits.

Eating is a behavior designed to respond to hunger or satiety. The study explored three other types: emotional eating, in response to strong emotions; external eating, in response to food availability or other external cues; and restrained eating, where food intake is voluntarily reduced.

Body image is a powerful source of disordered eating behaviors in mothers. Maternal stress and negative moods may also trigger altered child-feeding practices. The pandemic was unquestionably associated with increased anxiety and stress among parents, with work-childcare conflicts being more likely to arise due to the shift of both workplace and education to the home. Related StoriesIs there an association between COVID-19 and the risk of developing an autoimmune disease?Vaccine component BNT162b4 enhances T-cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants for reduced COVID-19 disease severityIs there an association between post COVID-19 syndrome and cognitive impairment?

In the current study, the scientists aimed to understand how these three factors – the mother's mood, body image, and eating habits, were linked to differences in child-feeding practices. These included non-responsive feedings, such as a behavioral reward, overt or covert restrictions, and meal structure.

The data came from an online questionnaire sent to 137 mothers. They were asked to describe their eating habits, mood, satisfaction with their body, and whether they had non-responsive feeding practices during the pandemic and during the pre-pandemic years. What did the study show?

The study's results indicated that non-responsive feeding practices partially differed during the pandemic.

Mothers used food to incentivize desirable behavior among children more often during this period. There was a decline in formal place-setting practices at the same time.

Mothers with greater self-reported stress, anxiety, and/or depression were less satisfied with their bodies. These mothers also were more likely to restrict food access by the child.

They were more prone to restrained eating as well as emotional eating. This was observed both before and during the pandemic. Anxiety was linked to greater use of reward eating during the pandemic but not before.

Body image dissatisfaction was linked to greater restrictions on the food accessible to the child before and during the pandemic. These mothers also showed more restrained eating and more emotional eating.

Mothers who tended to eat emotionally were more likely to show more non-responsive child-feeding behavior during and before the pandemic. Thus, they were more likely to use food as a reward for good behavior and to restrict food access by the child. The only behavior that did not change was the structured meal setting.

The impact of the pandemic was observed only in a greater incidence of using food to reward the child for eating among those mothers with greater depression, anxiety, and/or stress levels. Such mothers were also more likely to eat emotionally. What are the implications?

Despite the immense disruption caused by the pandemic, the observed effects on child feeding were restricted to increased laxity in meal settings and a greater tendency to reward children when they behaved as desired.

The latter was more common among mothers with anxiety, depression, and stress.

There was no relationship between maternal mood and meal setting, indicating that factors such as social distancing and other restrictions in place, along with their effect on the purchase, preparation, and timing of food for meals, were more important in this observed shift away from formal meals during the pandemic.

Poor body image did not appear to influence child-feeding practices, and mothers appeared to react in opposite ways to the lack of social interactions – with some eating more, while others reported poor appetite due to a negative mood.

In future periods with similar situations…

…resources to support mothers who are experiencing anxiety and distress should be available and include content targeting child feeding behaviors."

Further research on how the pandemic affected child feeding and eating over time is indicated. Moreover, these findings emphasize the need to monitor and support mental health during such periods. Journal reference:

Rodgers, R., Sereno, I. and Zimmerman, E. (2023) "Maternal mood, body image, and eating habits predict changes in feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic", Appetite, p. 106576. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.106576. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666323001290.

Environment

Tesla closes loophole that let Kia owners charge on Superchargers

Published

1 hour ago

January 23, 2025

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Tesla closes loophole that let Kia owners charge on Superchargers

Kia owners were supposed to get access to Tesla Superchargers on January 15, but that timeline was recently delayed. Some owners had figured out a loophole to charge, but it turns out, that loophole is now closed.

It’s been a busy time for the North American EV industry’s transition to NACS, the charging standard originally advanced by Tesla and now standardized by SAE.

We’ve recently seen several brands added to the “coming soon” list, and even beyond that, VW and Honda have both made their own announcements that access is coming soon.

But this past couple weeks were supposed to be even busier, with Kia having previously planned to roll out Supercharger access on January 15th, according to an announcement the company made back in September. Unfortunately there was a delay, and Kia owners will have to wait until later this quarter for official support.

In the meantime, though, owners had found that you could trick the system into letting you charge by telling it that you have a Hyundai. Hyundai and Kia both build their EVs on the same E-GMP platform, so there are a lot of similarities between them.

Kia, like Hyundai, is also in the process of shipping some of the first vehicles with a native NACS port, with the 2025 EV6 including a native NACS port, much like the 2025 Ioniq 5 does. So this similarity seemed to be able to trick the Supercharger network, and Kia EV6s could charge on it for a little while, assuming use of a third-party adapter.

Last week, we reported on this loophole, and were hearing of many owners who had success charging.

But that method no longer works, according to several Kia owners. Now, when attempting to charge at a Tesla Supercharger with an EV6 and adapter, the Tesla app will tell you “Unknown error occurred – Your vehicle is not able to charge at Superchargers at this time.” This has been confirmed to be the case even on Supercharger sites that were previously working.

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Probably one of the reasons for this is the use of third-party adapters. While third-party adapters are available, manufacturers are always wary when owners use non-verified equipment – especially when it’s related to the most expensive part of the car, the battery.

Kia themselves told us that “warranty coverage may be impacted by use of a third party or aftermarket adapter, and we expect to have our authorized version available in late Q1 2025” when we contacted them about our previous article (though we’re not sure how that would shake out legally – there are a lot of laws covering car warranties and what can and cannot void them).

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen some mix-ups with Supercharger access. Last November, Tesla announced that Nissan cars had access to Superchargers, but it turned out they jumped the gun. Everything is hunky-dory now for Nissan, and it seems like a bunch of new brands will gain access in the coming months, but we expect a few more fits and starts along the way (chaos tends to happen when you fire the whole Supercharger team for no reason).

But, once EV6s do gain access to Superchargers, we expect to see them show exceptional charge performance. The EV6’s cousin, the Ioniq 5, recently showed that it can charge faster than a Tesla, even on Tesla’s home turf. The EV6 should be able to accomplish similar feats, once it is unleashed onto North America’s biggest charging network.

If you’re looking to buy one of the fastest-charging EVs on the road today, use our link to check local dealers and get in line for when they get the new 2025 Kia EV6s in stock.

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Politics

BlackRock CEO wants SEC to ‘rapidly approve’ tokenization of bonds, stocks: What it means for crypto

Published

2 hours ago

January 23, 2025

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BlackRock CEO wants SEC to ‘rapidly approve’ tokenization of bonds, stocks: What it means for crypto

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Environment

Jaguar Land Rover invests $2M in rare earth magnets recycling

Published

2 hours ago

January 23, 2025

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Jaguar Land Rover invests M in rare earth magnets recycling

Jaguar Land Rover rare earth magnets recycling — Photo: Cyclic Materials

Jaguar Land Rover’s investment arm InMotion Ventures has invested $2 million in rare earth magnets recycling company Cyclic Materials, bringing its Series B funding round to $55 million.

Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures has invested in a range of technologies including supply chain traceability, battery repair, reuse and recycling, and now, rare earth magnets recycling.

“Cyclic Materials is leading the way in creating a sustainable supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and critical materials,” said Mike Smeed, managing director at InMotion Ventures. “Their innovative technologies address a vital need for rare earth magnets recycling, supporting the automotive industry’s transition toward a cleaner and more resilient future.”

Cyclic Materials says it will use the investment to accelerate the expansion of its operations across North America and Europe, boost its processing capabilities, and refine its recycling technologies.

This Series B extension builds on Cyclic Materials’ earlier $53 million round that already has the backing of BMWi, Microsoft, and Hitachi.

Rare earth magnet recycling

Rare earth magnets are a type of permanent magnet made from alloys of REEs, which are part of a set of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table. Rare earth magnets, particularly neodymium magnets, are essential in electric traction motors in EVs. Their strong magnetic fields help deliver high performance and efficiency, which extend an EV’s driving range and reduce battery load.

Rare earth magnets can also be found in everything from data centers and wind turbines to cell phones and power tools.

However, less than 1% of REEs are currently recycled, while the global demand already exceeds supply and is projected to grow threefold by 2030. Ontario-based Cyclic Materials says its proprietary MagCycle and REEPure technologies recycle REEs from a wide range of end-of-life products, establishing a circular supply chain for recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxides.

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