Children whose mothers are in full-time employment are at greater risk of obesity even if their father is a stay-at-home parent, according to experts.

Their study highlights that men about the house fail to realise the importance of their child's eating habits.

Study authors say that it is important for both parents to discuss day-to-day responsibilities, including food preparation and mealtimes.

John Cawley, from Cornell University and Feng Liu used data on almost 25,000 families from a yearly survey of how Americans spend their time.

Data showed that on average women who worked spent 127 fewer minutes per day with their children than stay-at-home mothers.

However stay-at-home fathers failed to offset the difference "We're not trying to say men are scum," Cawley told BuzzFeed.

Cawley and Liu noted that preparing meals from scratch and eating as a family could decrease a child's risk of obesity.

They also suggest that schools could offer healthier food and better physical education.

The study is published in the June issue of Economics and Human Biology.