Our children learn from us. They do what we do. In the case of obesity in the family, if the parents are overweight the children will likely be overweight as well. This will be from the foods served at mealtimes, the snackfoods in the house and also from the parents' attitudes that are absorbed by the children.

When a parent has bariatric surgery, which is weight loss surgery, it's important that they change their lifestyle, change their diet. And it's important that these changes be successfully passed on to the children so that hopefully they won't end up needing bariatric surgery themselves one day.

Dr. David Podkameni says, "... once that is established, the kid will understand in a much easier way exactly what types of food and what types of activities the family needs to do to improve their health because usually obesity unfortunately is not a problem of the individual; it’s a problem most of the time from the unit, from the family. So it needs to be addressed as a whole."

Video
https://www.empowher.com/media/video/obesity-how-does-family-history-affect-dr-podkameni