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Children's weight reflects mothers' working hours

A study using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) has found a link between children who are overweight at the age of three and the number of hours a mother works.

However, their partner's employment was not related to early childhoodobesity.

Researchers from the UCL Institute of Child Health examined therelationship between maternal and partner employment and a child'sweight at three years. The data covered 13,113 children born between2000 and 2002.

A total of 23 per cent of the children were overweight or obese. Theywere 14 per cent more likely to be overweight if their mothers workedafter their birth. The report also found that children from familieswith an income of 33,000 or more, were 10 per cent more likely tobe overweight for each extra 10 hours their mother worked per week.

The report said, 'These findings suggest that long hours of maternalemployment, rather than a lack of money, may impede young children'saccess to healthy foods and physical activity.

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