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"Eat your food" is a common parental demand that to most just signifies the desire to ensure your child is in fact eating and perhaps, even more likely, a subtle plea to get the child to be quiet for at least a few minutes.

But researchers say putting pressure on your child to eat may be contributing to their risk of obesity.

 "The primary principle is that crossing parent or child boundaries leads to feeding problems," according to the authors' theory that  parents should take responsibility for providing and serving food, while children are responsible for deciding whether or not to eat and how much to eat.

 Led by Dr. W. Stewart Agras of Stanford University promotes the efficacy of whats called the "division of responsibility" (DOR) program which aims to educate parents on putting less pressure on their children to eat certain foods and which could ultimately promote healthy development of appetite and eating behaviors in young children.

The study included 62 families with a toddler (aged two to four) considered at high risk of obesity -- with at least one parent who was obese or overweight. One group of parents was educated in the DOR concept, which takes a child-development approach to "parent/child feeding interactions."

Dr Agras explains, "At the family level parent feeding practices, such as taking control over their child's eating, appear to contribute to childhood obesity."

 The other group was assigned to the National Institutes of Health's "We Can" program, which seeks to promote healthy eating and increased physical activity.

At follow-up, parents educated in the DOR approach were putting less pressure on their child to eat, compared to those taught about the "We Can" program, regardless of the parents tendency to over-eat (personal lack of self control). parents in the latter group put more pressure on their children, even if the food were healthy, which led to a decrease in positive feeding practices.

Previous studies have shown that children whose parents are obese or overweight are at risk of becoming obese themselves, "possibly because the family environment reinforces 'maladaptive' eating behaviors." as quoted from a report by Wolters Kluwer.

The evidence suggests that parents becoming over-involved in their child's eating behavior -- such as taking excessive control over their child's eating -- contributes to childhood overweight. Excessive parental control over eating may interfere with the child's perceptions of hunger and feeling full (satiety).