Grandparents also contribute to obesity in children. A new study found that toddlers who were kept under the care of grandparents were gaining too much weight compared to those who were not.
The study reported in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, reported a 31 percent higher risks of obesity or overweight in children who were brought up by grandparents than parents.
For the study, a team of researchers from Finland followed 9,000 U.K. families for two years. The children observed in the study were followed from nine months of age until they turned three. Researchers collected information about those children who were taken care of by their grandparents and recorded body weight at age three.
Scientists found that a significant number of children kept under the care of grandparents (26. 2 percent) were overweight or obese when compared to children looked after by parents (22.9 percent).
Currently, grandparents are less active and energetic than they were in the past. They are also ignorant about the nutritional content in food, researchers while explaining the occurrence, said.
"Our results show that the same grandmother behaviour that may have had beneficial effects for grandchildren in our evolutionary past may have opposite effects in modern societies," the researchers, told The Independent. "Grandmother investment aimed at improving grandchildren's nutrition in subsistence societies may have different outcomes in contemporary affluent societies."
The findings come at a time, when kinship culture or putting children under the care of relatives and grandparents has gone up considerably across the country. A national report released in May 2012 found an 18 percent increase in the trend in the last decade. According to the report, at present more than 2.7 million children in America are under the care of grandparents or relatives.
