According to a new study by Australian researchers, fathers are more influential than mothers when it comes to children’s weight gain.

The Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute collaborated on a study that brings novel insight into the relationship between a child’s BMI and his/her parents’ parenting style.

The researchers worked with some 5,000 children with ages between 4 and 5 and analyzed the relationship between the children’s body mass index (BMI) and the way their mothers and fathers approach parenting.

One of the researchers’ findings was that fathers with a permissive parenting style, as well s fathers that did not become involved in a relationship with their offspring had heavier children, overweight or obese.

On the other hand, fathers that set limits and had a more disciplined approach to parenting, had children with lower BMIs.

Mothers' parenting behaviors and styles were not associated with a child's risk of having a higher BMI, the study found.

“This study of a large cross-section of Australian pre-schoolers has, for the first time, suggested that fathers could be at the frontline in preventing early childhood obesity,” said Associate Professor Melissa Wake of CCCH. “Mothers are often blamed for their children's obesity, but this study suggests that for more effective prevention perhaps we should focus on the whole family.”

Wake emphasized the importance of focusing on both parents’ style of parenting, within the family unit, adding that childhood obesity frequently leads to obesity in adulthood.

Childhood obesity has become increasingly common around the world, determining pediatricians to warn parents about the dangers of such a situation. The condition has been linked to heart diseases, asthma and diabetes. Obesity is also a risk factor for cancer.

American researchers have even identified a possible relation between childhood obesity in girls and earlier puberty, defined as the presence of breast development by age 9, while British experts have called it an “obesity epidemic.”

The CCCH study’s findings will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Toronto between May 4 and 9.

It is usually assumed that mothers (and grandmothers and aunts etc) contribute to children’s weight gain by being somewhat over-zealous when it comes to feeding the little ones or by permitting them to consume junk food. This new study shows that the situation is somewhat more complex.