Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Taking Control Of Childhood Obesity

By Bryan Smith


Each year, the number of children who are obese is growing at an alarming rate that it has become an epidemic. Every parent needs to be concerned and informed about this problem. Just why are we seeing a huge incidence of obesity in children today? The reasons are essentially the same as the reasons we've got so many adults who are either overweight or obese. It comes down to how much you eat relative to the amount of physical activity you get. There are many things that parents like you can do to ensure that your child doesn't end up overweight or obese.

Get your child to be a lot more active by scheduling healthy family activities regularly. This won't just benefit your child but your entire family as well. Take this as an opportunity for everyone in the family to bond and get healthy. Go on long hikes one weekend and swimming the following weekend. Vary the physical activities you do with the family every week so your child doesn't get bored. Does your family have dogs? Make the family activities more fun by taking them along. When you take family vacations, make sure you plan healthy activities for your child. Don't simply spend the time sitting in the car or in a tour bus. When you get the whole family involved in healthy activities, you're teaching your child healthy habits.

While eating healthy habits are what you want your child to develop, it won't do you any good really if you get way too strict on the food that you allow your child to consume. If your child is completely forbidden to eat those foods he or she likes to eat, your child will be craving for those foods and simply feel deprived. This is how binge eating in children start because children end up eating in secret the foods they aren't allowed to eat.

For so many years, it has been believed that milk is healthy and should therefore be part of every person's diet. Studies are consistently showing, however, that milk isn't all that healthy. Consuming milk and other milk-based products (e.g., cheese, ice cream) wouldn't be the healthiest thing for a child who is overweight.

Even when it's not good for them anymore to drink milk, children will continue to do so because they have been trained to think that drinking milk is a good thing. Take care that your child doesn't drink chocolate milk either, as it's even more packed with calories. A low-calorie option is low-fat yogurt, which is an excellent calcium and protein source. You don't have to remove milk from children's diets completely, but you should make sure they aren't getting more than they need.

Your child may be overweight now, but there is something you can do to help him or her get to a healthy weight. You already know a few strategies that you can use to help your child's weight problem. Make sure you talk with your child's doctor, however, if you need confirmation of whether or not your child is overweight. Keep in mind that children who are overweight or obese didn't become like that in just a blink of an eye. Thus, getting them back to a healthy weight isn't going to happen quickly either.




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