Hey parents, if you EVER doubted that it's your fault that your kid is fat, now there's even more proof that it is.

Guest blogger Jayne: In the past, I've lambasted fat parents for inflicting their poor, lazy, disgusting, obesity-inducing eating habits on their children. Well, now I am happy to say that I have even more proof that parents are pretty much solely to blame (except in the small instances of genetic issues or illness) for their kids packing on the pounds.

According to a recent study, it's not only what you feed your pint-sized porkers that's the problem -- it's your family's stress level that may actually DOUBLE the chance of your children being obese.

The findings are from a Swedish study that compared 5- to 6-year-old kids living in high-stress and low-stress households.

"Families can probably deal with some stress or stressors, but not with several at a time," Felix-Sebastian Koch, a doctoral student from Linkping University, told Reuters Health.

When stress becomes too much for the family to handle, Koch said, "children are at higher risk to develop childhood obesity."

The study evaluated stress levels in 7443 Swedish families from the time their children were born until the children's current ages of 5-6 years old. 4.2 percent of the children were obese.

During the study period, parents reported various "stressors" from serious life events including family accident or illness, death, divorce, unemployment, or exposure to violence. They also reported stressors such as parenting difficulties or elationship issues; a lack of social support; and worries about children's health and development.

Koch's group defined high-stress families as those reporting stress in at least two of these four areas.

Is your stress level making your kid fat?

From Fat To Fit