Child Obesity - Is it obesity or is my child just overweight?
Healthy eating and physical activity habits are essential not only to your child's health but that of your entire family. If you summarized every child obesity article you would come away knowing that eating too much and exercising too little will lead to obesity and other related health problems. But if you look further into child obesity statistics you will see that we as a society are already witnessing an acceleration of fatty liver syndrome in children in addition to adolescent heart disease. As a parent you can take an active role in helping your child and determining that your entire family learns healthy eating and physical activity habits that can last for a lifetime.
How do I determine if I am dealing with child obesity?
All children grow at dissimilar rates and at different times in their growth cycles. This being said it is not always simple and straightforward to determine if your child is overweight. Even within the same family you will find siblings that have dissimilar growth periods. If you feel that your child is overweight, a talk or visit to your health care provider can assist in providing concrete answers. Your health care provider can measure your child's height and weight and tell you if your child is within the healthy range for his or her age.
How can I assist and encourage my overweight child?
It is important to involve the entire family in building healthy eating and physical activity habits. A family that shares a goal of healthy eating and physical activity is solutions oriented. Focusing on a family goal benefits everyone and does not single out the child who is overweight.
Be supportive and proactive: The first step in any child obesity solution.
- Tell your child that he or she is loved, valued, and important. A child's feelings about themselves often are based on their parents' feelings about them.
- Accept and love your child regardless of their present or future weight. A child will be more able to accept themselves when they feel their parents already accept them.
- Listen with the intent of understanding your child's concerns about his or her weight. Overweight children probably know better than anyone else that they have a weight problem. They need support, understanding, and encouragement from parents.
Promote and offer healthy eating choices: Combating child obesity is more than eliminating junk food.
- Buy and serve more fruits and vegetables in the fresh and frozen. Solicit the help of your child choose them at the store.
- Minimize the purchase of soft drinks and high fat/calorie snack foods such as chips, cookies, and candy. These snacks should be used sparingly once in a while, with the emphasis put on healthy snack foods for your child's routine snacking.
- Eat breakfast every day. A skipped breakfast can leave your child hungry, tired, and susceptible to less healthy foods choices later in the day.
- Plan healthy meals and regularly eat together as a family. Eating together at regular meal times helps children learn to enjoy a variety of foods.
- Minimize the reliance on fast food. When you do opt for a fast food, explore and try healthful menu items.
- Offer your child water more frequently than fruit juice. Fruit juice is a healthy choice but is high in calories. One option is to freeze cubes of juice and use these in place of ice in your child's water.
- Avoid getting discouraged if your child will not try or eat a new food the first time it is served. Many children will need to have a new food served to them 10 or more times or more before they will eat it. (Keep thinking about different dishes or presentations, ex. Grilled squash vs. boiled squash)
- Avoid using food as a reward when encouraging your child to eat. Using dessert as a reward for trying or eating a vegetables sends a message that vegetables are less desired or valuable than dessert. Many children learn to dislike foods they perceive to be less valuable.
- Always start with small servings and let your child ask for more if they are still hungry. This is beneficial because it avoids waste, over-eating, and arguments over finishing your plate.
- Family meals are not a race. Meals are important both nutritionally and socially for families. Food should be enjoyed, not raced through in a competition for second helpings or desert. Mealtime should never suffer at the expense of Television. TV can be taped, family time cannot.
Healthy snack foods and alternatives: Fast snacks that avoid the “fast food child obesity” syndrome.
- Fresh fruit
- Small amounts of dried fruits such as raisins, apple rings, or apricots
- Fresh vegetables such as baby carrots, celery, cucumber, zucchini, or tomatoes
- Reduced fat cheese or a small amount of peanut butter on trans-fat free whole-wheat crackers
- Low-fat yogurt with fresh or dried fruit
- Graham crackers, animal crackers, or low-fat vanilla wafers
Daily physical activity: A positive step in dealing with the cause of child obesity.
Individuals of all ages need daily physical activity. Here are some suggestions to meet these physical activity goals:
- Nothing beats a good example. Studies show parents who are studying at night to complete a degree see their efforts influence children to achieve. The same holds true for exercise. Children see that you not only take care of yourself but have fun in the process. By setting this example they are more likely to be active and stay active throughout their lives.
- Find and encourage your child's interest in athletic activities. By joining a sports team or class, or league you are encouraging habits and routines that yield life-long benefits.
- As each child is develops at a different pace, understand your child's needs when suggesting a sport or athletic activity. Some children excel in areas such as speed and strength, where others have excelled in precision and fine-motor skills. Discus and experiment in order to find something that is both fun and challenging.
- Stay active together as a family. Household chores such as making the beds, washing the car, or vacuuming are physical activities that encourage movement and teach the value of maintaining and caring for ourselves and our possessions. Activities such as outings to the zoo, a walk through a local park, biking on a neighborhood trail further both the sense of family and community.
It is important to remember your child's body in relation to their physical development. There are many activities that your child should not undertake as their body may not be physically ready. Parents of pre-adolescent children should avoid pushing their children to participate in adult-style sports and activities such as jogging, stationary exercise bikes, treadmills, or weight-lifting. Recreational-type activities are best for kids.
As a general rule children need approximately 60 minutes of physical activity a day. It is important to remember that is represents a total not a given period. There are many opportunities in the day that will add up to this goal. A typical recess period of a school aged child makes a significant contribution to this goal. For children are not used to physical activity, a slow build of activity will ultimately enable them to meet the 60 minutes a day goal.
Physical activities for your child to try that are both fun and benefitial:
Riding a bike
Climbing on playground equipment
Swinging on a swing set
Jumping rope
Dribbling a soccer ball
Throwing a ball
Discourage no-activity recreation: Traditional TV viewing = child obesity television.
- Rethink your TV-centered activity. Place limits on the amount of time your family dedicates to watching TV, DVD's and playing video games.
- Help your child discover interesting and fun activities besides watching TV. Rediscover favorite books, artistic interests, outdoor hobbies, etc. You may find that your child eventually finds this more interesting than television.
- Control your TV. With Tivo and other digital video recording devices dropping below $99 many now have the opportunity to watch TV on their own schedule. Recording your child's favorite show will help you avoid food commercials, excess TV viewing, and missing a beautiful day outside for the sake of TV.
Be a positive role model: Reversing child obesity starts with the parent.
Children are good observers and they learn what they see. By making healthy food choices and placing emphasis on physically active recreation for yourself, your children will see that they can follow healthy habits set by your example.
Find more help: Answers to determining if you are dealing with obesity in you child.
Your health care provider
Your health care provider is a good place to start for those with children that have immediate needs. Your provider if necessary can refer you to other health care professionals who specialize in working with overweight children. They may also be helpful in recommending dietitians, psychologists, and exercise physiologists who can assist in cases of significant health impact.
Weight-control programs
There are several factors that may warrant looking into a treatment program. Some of these factors to consider are:
- You have made changes in your family's eating and physical activity habits and given the proper time your child continues to have difficulty reaching a healthy weight.
- You have been informed by your health care provider that your child's health or emotional well-being is at risk because of their weight.
With a treatment program one of the overall goals is to assist your entire family in adopting healthy eating and physical activity habits. When evaluating a weight-control program you should look for the following criteria:
- The program should include a variety of health care professionals on staff. These should consist of doctors, registered dietitians, psychiatrists or psychologists, and/or exercise physiologists with specific experience in weight-control matters.
- The program should evaluate your child's weight, growth, and health before enrolling in the program. These factors should be continually monitored while in the program.
- The program should be flexible and adaptable to the specific age and abilities of the individual child. Given the various age and developmental differences a single program should not treat 5-year-olds and 12-year-olds with the same plan or methodology.
- The program should assist the entire family in maintaining healthy eating and physical activity behaviors long after the program ends.
