I'm tired of the GUILT factor

     I'm so tired of hearing about yet another thing I did wrong apparently when it comes to raising my children.  There's a study out in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine this month that suggests women who put their babies in day care, or have someone else care for the child (a nanny or relative), is sentencing the child to a life of obesity.  Well, ok, the study doesn't quite say it like that but it does say that infants cared for by someone other than the mother or father are more likely to gain weight during their first year, and that they say, could lead to childhood weight problems.

     The researchers analyzed data on child care, feeding practices and weight gain from more than eight thousand infants.  More than half of them were getting childcare from someone other than a parent.  Here's what they found:

• Infants in part-time childcare gained about 0.4 pounds more weight during 9 months than infants who were cared for by their parents.
• Infants cared for by a relative gained about 0.35 pounds more weight.

     In both cases infants were less likely to have been breastfed earlier.

     "Overwhelming and consistent data support hte notion that early weight gain during infancy is a strong risk factor for (becoming) overweight in childhood and adulthood," the researchers conclude.

     So here's my gripe....actually I have a a few gripes.  First, is the weight gain mentioned above that terrible?  Second, were there mitigating factors?  We have no idea what the circumstances were in the various child care scenarios.  Third, and perhaps most important, most parents who put their children in day care of some sort don't have a choice; they have to go back to work.  It's been well documented that the percentage of working moms has gone up exponentially.  In most famlies, both parents have to work in order to provide for their children.  People are doing the best they can. 

     Are these type of studies worth anything? I suppose they are, I'm just not sure what.  Like I said, the weight gain mentioned above doesn't seem like a big deal to me but I could be wrong. Now I know these researchers aren't trying to pass judgement on people, but for those of us who had to go back to work, or wanted to go back to work (is that so bad?), hearing these things doesn't help.  Most of us feel guilty enough.