Fighting Back Against Child Obesity

Experts tell us that amount of overweight or obese children have reached epidemic proportions. The current figures show that over 65% of Americans are obese with almost 30% falling into the clinically obese range. This trend spills over into the statistics for children with around 15% to 20% considered to be overweight and almost 30% of those are clinically obese. Research has shown that children who are born to parents who are obese are likely to become obese themselves.

Many obese children have behavior and learning problems The medical community has already seen a surge in childhood diabetes and of the children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese. If you are concerned if your child might be obese, your health care provider can measure your child's height and weight and let you know if your child is within the healthy range for his or her age. This is the best way to determine if your child’s excess weight is just part of a growth pattern that they will outgrow or is something that needs to be addressed.

Children must be provided with foods that are nutritionally sound and foods that they actually like to eat. Provide your child with a support system by removing the usual culprits of potato chips, soft drinks, sweets and other damaging foods from the home. It is so important to change your eating habits from all those ready-to-eat processed foods which contain little nutritional value and develop new habits of eating fresh and healthy foods. Provide baby carrots or apple slices instead of chips as a snack.

A normal child spends a lot of time watching television or playing computer games. These activities provide no exercise and often fill up a child’s time when playing outside would be a better choice. There are studies that contain strong evidence that television is very effective in making kids want to eat the junk foods that are advertised.

We need to encourage our children to be more active. The overall amount of physical education in our schools has been reduced, so you need to enroll your child in a sports activity and encourage them to participate. Other fun family activities could include a walk, bike riding, playing at the playground, swimming and shooting hoops on the basketball court.

As a parent you should take part in helping your child and making sure that your entire family learns healthy eating and physical activity habits that can last for a lifetime. Try to teach healthy and positive attitudes toward food and physical activity without emphasizing body weight. Take any changes gradually as healthy lifestyles develop slowly over time. Remember that children learn by example.