These tips
could help your child achieve and maintain a healthier weight if your child has
a weight problem.
Obesity
in children: Knowing the problem
As a mom,
there are few things that are cuter than your full-cheeked infant or your
toddler's chubby knees. Nonetheless, this cute baby fat can turn into a health
problem for some babies.
Today in
developing countries almost 1 out of 4 children and teenagers are overweight or
obese. The pounds overweight put children at risk for chronic health problems
like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma.
Child
obesity has an emotional toll, too. Children who are overweight also have
difficulty keeping up with other children and participating in sports and
activities. They can be bullied and excluded by other children, leading to low
self-esteem, negative body image, and sometimes even depression.
When you watch
your child struggle with their weight, you may feel sad or helpless; in
reality, you are not either. There is plenty that you can do to support your
children. Diagnosing weight and obesity issues as early as possible in children
will reduce their risk of having severe medical conditions as they grow older.
Through involving
the entire family, you will break the cycle of weight and obesity issues,
improve the physical and mental health of your children and help them develop a
healthy lifelong relationship with food. Whatever the weight of your family,
let them know you love them and all you want to do is help them be safe and
happy.
How
then do you tell if your child is overweight?
At
different times, children develop at different levels and it's not always easy
to say whether a child is overweight. Body mass index (BMI) uses measures of
height and weight to determine a child's body fat content.
Although
BMI is generally a good predictor, it is NOT a perfect measure of body fat, but
can also be misleading when children experience periods of rapid development.
When your
child reports a high BMI-for - age rating, the health care provider may need to
conduct further tests and examinations to decide if excess fat is an issue.
Causes
of weight problems and obesity in children
Knowing how
children get overweight is an important step towards breaking the cycle in the
first place. Many forms of childhood obesity are caused by too much food and
too little exercise. Children need enough food to help them grow and develop
healthily. Yet if they suck in more calories than they eat all day long, the
effect is weight gain.
Causes of
children's weight issues would include:
Ø
Bigger
portions of food, whether in restaurants or at home.
Ø Children consume large quantities of sugar in sweetened beverages and are covered in a variety of foods.
Ø
Kids
spend less time playing physically outdoors, and more time watching TV, playing
video games and sitting on the couch.
Ø
Busy
families are cooking less at home, and dining out more.
Ø
Facilitated
access to inexpensive, high calorie fast food and junk food.
Ø
Most
schools do away with or cut down on their physical education services.
To
tackle weight issues, include the entire family
Healthy
customs start from home.
The best way to tackle or avoid issues with child obesity and weight is to get
the entire family on a healthy track. Making healthier food decisions and being
healthier, whatever weight, would help everyone.
In becoming
involved with the specifics of their lives, you will also have a significant
impact on your children's health. Spending time with your children — talking
about their day, playing, reading, cooking — can provide them with the boost in
self-esteem they would need to make positive changes.
Create
healthy decisions concerning food
While you
may need to make substantial changes to the eating patterns of your family,
doing all at once generally leads to cheating or giving up. Alternatively,
begin by taking tiny, incremental moves toward healthier eating — like adding a
salad to dinner every night or switching out French fries for steamed
vegetables — rather than just one major dramatic move.
Eat the rainbow. Serve and enable a large variety of
fruit and vegetables to be eaten. This will include red (beets, tomatoes),
orange (carrots, squash), yellow (potatoes, bananas), green (lettuce, broccoli)
etc.
Search for hidden sugar. It's just part of the fight to
reduce the amount of sweets and treats you and your child enjoy. Foods as
varied as pizza, canned soups, pasta sauce, quickly mashed potatoes, frozen
dinners, low-fat meals, fast food, and ketchup also contain sugar. The body is
getting all that it needs from the naturally existing sugar in the food — so
everything added amounts to nothing but a ton of empty calories. Check labels
and look for products with low sugar, and use fresh or frozen ingredients
instead of canned products.
Schedule mealtimes daily. Most kids just like routine. If
your kids know they'll only get food at certain times, they'll have a better
chance of enjoying what they get when they get it.
Don’t go no fat, go
good fat
Not all the
fats lead to adding weight. Work on replacing unhealthy fats with good fats
instead of attempting to strip out fat from your child's diet.
Avoid Trans fats which are harmful
to the health of your infant.
Seek to remove or minimize snack foods sold in commercially baked goods, fried foods
and everything in the products with "partially hydrogenated" oil,
even though it appears to be trans-fat-free.
Add healthy fats which can help a child regulate
blood sugar and prevent diabetes. Avocados, olive oil, almonds, fatty fish,
wheat, tofu, flaxseed, Brussels sprouts, kale, and spinach are unsaturated or
"healthy" fats.
Be
smart about snacks and sweet food
Your home
is where the majority of meals and snacks your child most likely consumes, so
it's important that your kitchen is filled with healthy choices.
Don't outright ban sweets. While many children eat too much
sugar, having a rule on no sweets is an invitation to cravings and to
overindulge when given the chance. Alternatively, restrict the amount of
cookies, candies, and baked goods that your child eats, and then add snacks and
sweets focused on fruit.
Limit the drinks for water, soda,
and coffee. Soft
drinks are filled with sugar, so it can be just as harmful for shakes so coffee
drinks. Many juices aren't nutritionally better, so instead offer your child
sparkling water with a lime twist, fresh mint or a splash of fruit juice.
Emphasis on fruits. Keep out a bowl of fruit for your
kids to snack on — kids love satsuma or tangerine oranges. And offer fruit as a
sweet treat — frozen juice bars, fruit smoothies, strawberries and a dollop of
whipped cream, fresh fruit added to plain yogurt, or peanut buttered apples.
Check your child's cereal for sugar
content. There is a
significant difference between the various cereal brands in the amount of added
sugar. Some cereals are by weight more than 50 per cent of sugar. Attempt to
mix low sugar, high fiber cereal with your child's favorite sweetened cereal,
or add fresh or dried fruit for a natural sweet taste to the oatmeal.
Reduce
TV time
The less
time your kids spend watching television, playing video games or using
computers or mobile devices, the more time they spend on the fun pastimes. Know
how important it is to be a good role model for you — so you will also have to
cut back on your own viewing habits.
Select another reward or penalty. Instead of giving your child more
time in front of the TV or screen, promise something else, such as an outing or
an activity of their choosing.
Limit screen time per day. Studies show a correlation between
screen time and obesity, so set limits on TV-watching, gaming and web surfing
for your kids. Experts suggest a maximum of two hours a day.
Get
your kids moving
Children
who sit too long and move too little risk getting overweight. Children need an
hour of moderate exercise for optimum safety. This may sound like a lot, but
exercise does not have to happen at once in a gym, or at all. Try to
incorporate movement into the regular routine of your family, instead.
Exercising ideas for children
It used to
be commonplace to see kids running around and playing in neighborhood streets,
obviously wasting energy and getting exercise. This isn't always a choice in
today's world but you always have options to improve their level of operation.
Have your child involved outside. Take a walk around the
neighborhood, ride a bike, explore a local park, visit a playground, or play in
the yard. When it makes sense for your neighborhood and schedule, walk to and
from school and activities
Enroll children into sports or other
after-school activities.
When your budget allows, sign up kids to play a sport or take part in an
activity where they become physically involved. Local YMCA, YWCA, or Boys' and
Girls' Club are safe places for kids to play and work out.
Carry on tasks together. Perhaps it's not the first option
for your kids, but doing household chores is a very effective way of getting
exercise. Mopping, sweeping, garbage disposal, dusting, or vacuuming consumes a
significant amount of calories.
Log in with your child for a 5 or 10
K walk / run. Even
getting a target in mind will get even the most reluctant exercisers inspired.
Find a child-friendly event in your city, and tell your child that together you
will be "training" for it. When you complete this task be sure to
rejoice.
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