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Helping Your Overweight Child
Healthy eating and physical activity habits
are key to your child's well-being. Eating too much and exercising
too little can lead to overweight and related health problems
that can follow children into their adult years. You can
take an active role in helping your child— your whole
family— healthy eating and physical activity habits
that can last for a lifetime.
Is my child overweight?
Because children grow at different rates at
different times, it is not always easy to tell if a child
is overweight. If you think that your child is overweight,
talk to your health care provider. He or she can measure
your child's height and weight and tell you if your child
is in a healthy range.
How can I help my overweight child?
Involve the whole family in building healthy eating and
physical activity habits. It benefits everyone and does not
single out the child who is overweight.
Do not put your child on a weight-loss diet unless your
health care provider tells you to. If children do not eat
enough, they may not grow and learn as well as they should.
Be supportive
- Tell your child that he or she is loved, is special,
and is important. Children's feelings about themselves
often are based on their parents' feelings about them.
- Accept your child at any weight. Children will be more
likely to accept and feel good about themselves when their
parents accept them.
- Listen to 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.
Encourage healthy habits
- Buy and serve more fruits and vegetables (fresh, frozen,
or canned). Let your child choose them at the store.
- Buy fewer soft drinks and high fat/high calorie snack
foods like chips, cookies, and candy. These snacks are
OK once in a while, but keep healthy snack foods on hand
too and offer them to your child more often.
- Eat
breakfast every day. Skipping breakfast can leave your
child hungry, tired, and looking for less healthy foods
later in the day.
- Plan healthy meals and eat together as a family. Eating
together at meal times helps children learn to enjoy a
variety of foods.
- Eat fast food less often. When you visit a fast food
restaurant, try the healthful options offered.
- Offer your child water or low-fat milk more often than
fruit juice. Fruit juice is a healthy choice but is high
in calories.
- Do not get discouraged if your child will not eat a new
food the first time it is served. Some kids will need to
have a new food served to them 10 times or more before
they will eat it.
- Try not to use food as a reward when encouraging kids
to eat. Promising dessert to a child for eating vegetables,
for example, sends the message that vegetables are less
valuable than dessert. Kids learn to dislike foods they
think are less valuable.
- Start with small servings and let your child ask for
more if he or she is still hungry. It is up to you to provide
your child with healthy meals and snacks, but your child
should be allowed to choose how much food he or she will
eat.
Healthy snack foods for your child to try:
- Fresh
fruit
- Fruit canned in juice or light syrup
- Small amounts of dried fruits such as raisins, apple
rings, or apricots
- Fresh vegetables such as baby carrots, cucumber, zucchini,
or tomatoes
- Reduced fat cheese or a small amount of peanut butter
on whole-wheat crackers
- Low-fat yogurt with fruit
- Graham crackers, animal crackers, or low-fat vanilla
wafers
Foods that are small, round, sticky, or hard to chew,
such as raisins, whole grapes, hard vegetables, hard chunks
of cheese, nuts, seeds, and popcorn can cause choking in
children under age 4. You can still prepare some of these
foods for young children, for example, by cutting grapes
into small pieces and cooking and cutting up vegetables.
Always watch your toddler during meals and snacks.
Encourage physical activity
Like adults, kids need daily physical activity. Here are
some ways to help your child move every day:
- Set a good example.
If your children see that you are physically active and
have fun, they are more likely to be active and stay active
throughout their lives.
- Encourage your child to join a sports team or class,
such as soccer, dance, basketball, or gymnastics at school
or at your local community or recreation center.
- Be sensitive to your child's needs. If your child feels
uncomfortable participating in activities like sports,
help him or her find physical activities that are fun and
not embarrassing.
- Be active together as a family. Assign active chores
such as making the beds, washing the car, or vacuuming.
Plan active outings such as a trip to the zoo or a walk
through a local park.
Because his or her body is not ready yet, do not encourage
your pre-adolescent child to participate in adult-style physical
activity such as long jogs, using an exercise bike or treadmill,
or lifting heavy weights. FUN physical
activities are best for kids.
Kids need a total of about 60 minutes of physical activity
a day, but this does not have to be all at one time. Short
10- or even 5-minute bouts of activity throughout the day
are just as good. If your children are not used to being
active, encourage them to start with what they can do and
build up to 60 minutes a day.
FUN physical activities for your child to try:
- Riding
a bike
- Climbing on a jungle gym
- Swinging on a swing set
- Jumping rope
- Playing hopscotch
- Bouncing a ball
Discourage inactive pasttimes
- Set limits on the amount of time your family spends watching
TV and videos, and playing video games.
- Help your child find FUN things
to do besides watching TV, like acting out favorite books
or stories, or doing a family art project. Your child may
find that creative play is more interesting than television.
- Encourage your child to get up and move during commercials
and discourage snacking when the TV is on.
Be a positive role model
Children are good learners and they learn what they see.
Choose healthy foods and active pastimes for yourself. Your
children will see that they can follow healthy habits that
last a lifetime.
Read the rest of this great article from
the Weight Loss Information Network at: http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/over_child.htm
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