From Fat to Fit — Carole Carson

Four Ways to Help Your Child Stay Fit

Carole Carson

One out of every five toddlers is overweight. What are the implications? Infant car seats must be redesigned to safely accommodate heavier infants and toddlers. School uniforms and student desks have to be supersized to accommodate heavier youngsters. A number of clothing retailers have introduced lines for oversized teen girls.

Pediatricians are being trained to recognize the symptoms of adult-onset diabetes and stroke in their young patients. As part of this education, participants at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2011 learned that “a marked increase in the rate of stroke was noted in children ages five to 14.”

Leaders promoting the Let’s Move campaign initiated by First Lady Michelle Obama are working in partnership with local communities to address the expanding problem of childhood obesity. To be effective, however, their efforts need to be reinforced by day-to-day actions in our homes. What positive steps can families take? Psychologist Howard Rankin, author of weight-loss and wellness books, says, "Especially for children, exercise is the key. Ensuring that your child gets up and moves around for five or ten minutes when playing video games or while playing on the computer is important."

Here are four more suggestions from researchers:

Every Day Tasks Can Become Fun Family Fitness Activities: Participating in fitness activities with the entire family promotes healthy habits and provides quality together time. Today’s families frequently struggle to find time for physical exercise. Yet setting aside time for fitness may not be as hard as parents think, especially if parents turn everyday activities into family fitness fun. Chores such as shoveling snow, washing cars or raking leaves can double as fitness activities.

Healthy Eating Habits Are Formed Early: According to the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study, children’s eating habits are formed between birth and 24 months, with many permanent eating habits formed by age three. These findings underscore parents’ responsibility to find fun and creative ways to encourage kids to eat healthfully. Parents can set a good example by eating nutritiously themselves, as well as by providing a variety of healthy food choices for kids. In addition, asking kids to help with food preparation and cooking makes them feel involved and fosters a healthy relationship with food.

Kids Who Dine with Their Families Are Less Likely to Be Overweight: Researchers report that kids who enjoy regular family dinners are less likely to be overweight than kids who rarely eat with their families. When families eat together, they tend to eat healthier foods, such as vegetables and fruits. Kids who eat regular meals with their families also perform better in school and are less likely to drink alcohol or take drugs than other kids are.

Kids and Parents Can Both Enjoy Healthy Meals: For delicious, kid-tested recipes, check out The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s new cookbook, Keep the Beat Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Family Meals. This innovative, inexpensive cookbook includes 40 healthy, family-friendly and easy-to-prepare recipes that your kids—and you—will love. And for families on a tight budget, the recipes are also leftover friendly.

Obesity places a terrible burden on kids. Besides being at risk for adult obesity and facing a lifetime of weight-related health problems, overweight kids face painful social discrimination. Maintaining self-esteem in the face of an ongoing stream of negative feedback about a child’s appearance is very difficult.

Parents do not have an easy job, given the 24/7, easy accessibility and attractiveness of high-calorie, low-nutrition food. Nonetheless, they have the primary responsibility for protecting their offspring’s health, and the best way to help youngsters stay trim is to become a positive role model. Teacher and counselor John Weyenberg underscores this concept when he says, “Parents owe it to their children to set the best example possible in all areas of life . . . Preventing obesity in children and teens begins with parents and the example they set.”