Childhood Obesity and Weight Problems

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.

Simple, Fun Ideas for Family Fitness

By now you know why exercise is important to your family: it can reduce heart risks, control weight, and help children in school do better. And it lets some energy burn off for kids. Additionally, early-age family activities and fitness can go a long way to helping children form healthy lifestyle habits.

But don't expect your children to understand these issues-or even think about them. Your job is to make them see how fun it's to move more. When exercise feels like playing, your entire family enjoys it more and is more likely to stick to it.

Here are five family-fitness ideas that can move you all.

Create time to play

Set aside three times a week, 30 minutes to do fun exercises with your children. Make it a part of your after-school routine or after-dinner. They might like hopscotch, or hide-and-seek, if your kids are young. Kick a soccer ball, or shoot hoops with older kids.

Planning at least one family activity each weekend too. It can be as simple as taking the little ones to the playground — or as challenging as hiking with your teenager for the whole day.

A key to getting children to move is planning time for physical activities. You can find that time, for starters, by turning off the TV. Then, offer a variety of competitive and non-competitive family activities. When children learn different ways of moving their bodies, they will find activities that they enjoy and want to stick with for the long run.

Walking or cycling, anywhere you can

Using muscle power: Ride or walk to the grocery store, library, or school or sporting activities for your boy. After dinner go for a 30-minute family walk instead of heading straight for the Couch.

Track steps of all with a pedometer, and try to add more distance each week. To track your progress, use a family exercise log or colorful stickers. Put your log or diagram on the fridge as a reminder to keep up the good effort.

Planning Active Family Activities

Serve family fitness as well as cake by planning active games such as tag or relay races at your child's birthday party. Older children could enjoy throwing a dance party.

Any large gathering of children is also a great opportunity to play a team sport. Just go to a nearby football field or basketball court. Many fun party ideas: a pool party, roller skating, or ice hockey, or indoor rock gym climbing.

Turn off the television at family or holiday meetings and take a walk around the community or go for a nice stroll in a local park. Or go outside for a catch or basketball game.

Singing and Dancing When Cleaning

Place household tasks aside and do them together as a family. Play music as you clean it, and select favorite songs in turn. Younger kids love to help out, and they can pick up toys or sweep floors while they dance with the broom. Older children have the ability to dust, vacuum and help make beds.

Making your Yard Work less of a chore

Enjoy working together at seasonal yard. Younger kids can help with the planting and the gardening. Older children can pluck leaves into a pile — and then jump into it. Make snow shoveling fun for everyone by building a snow fort, or by creating a snow people family.

How Children can lose weight with diet

The key to shedding pounds is the choice of hunger-fighting foods.

If your child is obese or overweight it is one of the greatest things you can ever do him now and in the future to help him get to a healthy weight. But what exactly is the best way to do it? In general, that depends on the age of your child.

There's no one number on the scale that children need to hit in order to be safe. The right range depends on how tall, gender and age they are. In fact, most kids shouldn't actually lose weight — they should just keep it growing taller or putting on pounds more slowly.

When children are very young, you're responsible for their routine. Make sure that your child's day includes plenty of time — at least 60 minutes — to be active, whether it's climbing the park's jungle gym, playing backyard tags or jumping around in the living room. He need not get all of his exercise at once. Short outbursts of activity that add up to an hour throughout the day are just fine.

Offer him a variety of nutritious choices at meal and snack times. With just a few easy steps your child and the whole family can eat healthier some include:

Avoid Carbs with Starchy

If your child had a bagel for breakfast this morning, consuming a bowl of sugar wouldn't be any more nutritious.  That's because, soon after you ingest them, most starchy carbohydrates like bread, white rice, and potatoes turn into glucose. Instead, starting the day with eggs or another protein source will not only help your child feel fuller but will also help them lose weight.

Children who are overweight are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and by age 30 may experience kidney failure and amputations. Ironically, over the last few decades our focus has been on low-fat eating — and the subsequent boom in high-carb meals and snacks.

Tips on nutrition
Glycemic load is crucial.

This is the measurement of how quickly a carbohydrate-containing food converts into glucose. Studies have shown that when a child eats a high-glycemic meal, his blood-glucose rises and then falls, leaving him even more hungry. It takes longer for a low-glycemic meal to digest so that a child's blood sugar remains stable and he can remain full longer. Low-glycemic carbs generally have more fibre, and are less processed.

Hard Explanations why you are not losing weight

Select lots (but not all) of veggies and fruits.

No surprise here: the product should be stacked. But corn and potatoes have a high glycemic index, and certain tropical fruits, including bananas and pineapple, are more likely to lead to weight gain than apples, grapes, oranges, cantaloupe, kiwi, or berries.

In most meals and snacks, try including protein.

Besides being filled, protein stimulates the release of a hormone which helps the body release stored fat for energy use.

Biggest Myths About Weight Loss

Fat is not the enemy always.

 Good fats such as unsaturated oils, nut butters and avocado slow digestion, allowing fruit, vegetables and whole grains even more satisfying. In addition, fat is essential to health as cell membranes need to be made in the body. Your child consumes the types of fat that affect his or her immune system, nervous system and overall health.

Also Read How to Lose Weight Safely and hold it off

Avoid foods your grandparents would not have been able to recognize.

Fake foods (think chicken nuggets, fruit roll-ups, cheese puffs, and other highly processed products not resembling anything in nature) are rarely healthy choices. Look for the least-processed choices when choosing grains, such as stone-ground wheat bread, steel-cut oatmeal, and brown rice.

Food, too, can influence behavior.

There is a surge in the stress hormone adrenaline when your child's blood sugar drops soon after a high-glycemic meal. That could make them cranky, irritable or incapable of concentrating in lesson.

Also Read Powerful Benefits of Regular Exercise

Children should not feel sidelined or deprived.

Because of its weight you do not want your child to feel singled out. Talk to the entire family about the importance of having healthy choices. And remember: The children are copying the habits of their parents. That means you need to do it too, if you want your child to eat more vegetables or get more exercise.

Exercises To Help You Lose Weight Anywhere

No parent wants to get a diet on their child. But if the entire family is focused on low-glycemic diets, one child who has a problem with weight does not feel singled out. By helping him focus on the quality of his food instead of the quantity he eats, he can eat until he feels satisfied and loses weight.

Foods which fill you up

Shift the balance to low- or medium-glycemic loaded carbohydrates, and cut back on high ones. Examples include:

HIGH: Corn, potatoes, white rice, French fries, chips, juice, jam, sweetened yogurt, most bread, pancakes, waffles, pizza, popcorn, pretzels, taco shells, quick-cooking oatmeal, most cereal, frozen yogurt.

MEDIUM: Pineapple, sweet potatoes, banana, dried fruit, applesauce, sweetened peanut butter, pasta, high-fiber cereal, stone-ground bread, brown rice, ice cream.

LOW: Broccoli, carrots, avocado, apples, berries, beans, steel-cut oatmeal, hummus, nuts, unsweetened peanut butter, plain yogurt (add honey and fruit), milk, cheese.

 Read Also How to Quickly Lose Weight: 3 Basic Steps

 

Take Message Home Children can help themselves make snacks. By stocking your kitchen with nutritious foods you can make healthy choices easier for them by keeping junk food out of the house. Your child will easily make the right choice when choosing between an apple and a banana instead of an apple or cookie.