Kids' weight increases when mom works more?

The length of a mother's employment is associated with an increase in her child's body mass index, according to a study in the journal Child Development. This isn't the first time mothers' work hours and kids' weight is related, says CNN, but it's likely to peeve some mothers.

Morrissey and her co-authors observed how children's BMI and a mother's work hours were related, in which every six months a child's mother worked, the child would gain 1-pound. This analysis was tested on 900 children.

Possible reasons were:
"Working mothers could be pressed for time, which could cause them to turn to fast food and restaurants."

"Some parents weren't able to eat with their families more than a couple times a week," Devine said. "The job structure had a lot to do with it and when people don't eat together as a family, the diets are worse and heavier."

Some were upset that kid's health could be blamed down to mothers but Morrissey argues,

"The bottom line is that families face many, many constraints and that policies and additional research are needed to help balance health and family life."

source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/04/children.bmi.moms/index.html?hpt=Sbin