How to overcome childhood obesity
/ Blog
No joke;
a badly overweight child has more to worry about than just their health.
Kids are kids; they haven’t mastered the art of tact yet. Nor do they comprehend the concept of severe hurt.
So they think it’s funny to taunt skinny kids, fat kids, kids with wonky teeth and kids with bad acne. They don’t get the pain such torment causes, or if they do, they don’t care.
If your child is carrying a lot of extra weight around, you can guarantee they’ll be taking on extra baggage every day in the form of bullying and painful jibes. For a young kid, that probably has more immediate impact on their well being than all the more obvious complications obesity brings.
But it all counts and the sooner you confront it, the better. And while your child will need to make some changes, most of the changing needs to come from you.
Even older habits die hard
We all do it; we’re in the supermarket buying all the healthy stuff for the week’s meals and we pass the chips and sweets aisles. We know how the house erupts in cheers and high fives when we flourish big bags of cheese balls or Mars bars on our return home. And we know we can flourish broccoli or cabbage until we’re blue in the face and it won’t get the same reaction.
So in it goes. And it looks okay on top of all the healthy stuff in our trolley; a few sinful goodies on a mountain of goodness. And it’ll look okay next time too, and the time after that. Because we always get it and the kids always scoff the lot before dinner.
And dinner; there’s another one
We’re tired and we forgot to defrost the chicken for that lean, healthy meal we had in mind. Oh, what the heck, it’s the thought that counts and that healthy meal will still be there for tomorrow night’s dinner while Dad drags himself off the couch and hits the drive-thru. More cheers, more high fives.
After all this we give our kids the full teapot and say “Why are you putting on weight?”
The big butt stops with us as parents
Kids love parents who grin and say “What the heck,” a lot because it’s three words that may as well say “Big Mac with fries and a Coke.” And in the eyes of our kids, we’re heroes for a night. We’re then villains the next night when we force them to eat healthy stuff.
We simply can’t be that random and bendable for our kids’ sake.
So what can we do?
Keep the treats and junk food to a minimum; it’s a treat, not a staple. Start promoting healthy eating habits by creating healthy, yet tasty meals with lean meats, fish and chicken. Get the kids drinking loads of water instead of sugary juices and soft drinks. And, just as importantly, get active. That means turning off the TV and doing something fun with the kids – basketball, backyard cricket, tennis, even just going for a family walk in the evening is a great way to burn off some calories after dinner.
For more on the obesity problem in children, this article in the World Health Organistion "Tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in four decades: new study by Imperial College London and WHO" it is well worth a read.
