Prevention & Treatment of Overweight & Obese Children

Childhood obesity is a serious condition that affects the mental, emotional and physical health of your child. Heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stressed joints and low self esteem are just a few of the problems your child could face if she becomes obese. By preventing obesity and treating any weight problems your child may have, you can increase her chances of growing into a healthy well-adjusted adult.

Breastfeeding

• Whether you are in a high-risk category as an overweight mother or not, breastfeeding is the best way to start your child on the road to good nutrition and good health. Medical News Today states that studies have shown that breastfeeding your baby for more than three months greatly reduces the likelihood of him becoming obese. The longer you breastfeed him, the more beneficial. There is no recommended age to stop breastfeeding and the World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until at least two and a half years.
  In addition to breast milk being beneficial for preventing obesity, formula can contribute to obesity. Formula contains sugar. Therefore by feeding your baby formula instead of breast milk, you are feeding her a regular dose of sugar, which contributes to fat stores in your baby's body.

Nutrition

• As your baby starts beginning to eat solid foods, you want to seriously limit the amount of sugars, simple carbohydrates and unnecessary fats your child has in her diet. Encourage her to eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, proteins and foods containing calcium (such as dairy, dark green vegetables and legumes). Encourage her to drink water, milk and 100 percent fruit juice. Exposing her to healthy foods and a variety of foods at a young age will help instill a lifelong love of healthy foods as well as preventing her from becoming a picky eater. MyPyramid.gov offers a personalized food pyramid you can use as a guide for your child's nutrition.
  Some tips on keeping your child on a good nutrition path are to set a good example with your own eating habits, keep foods such as soda, chips and candy out of the house, cook at home and get your child involved in the meal preparations, teach your child about nutrition, feed your child small portions, do not force your child to clean her plate, do not use food as a condolence and save indulgences for special occasions.

Exercise

• Television, home computers and video games encourage your child to be sedentary. This contributes to childhood obesity. To prevent obesity, in addition to limiting screen time, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education suggests you have at least a half an hour a day structured play with your toddler, at least an hour with your preschooler and at least an hour of free play a day for both your toddler and your preschooler. School age children should get at least an hour of exercise a day in no less than 15 minute increments. Your child should do exercises that increase his endurance, strength and flexibility. To encourage your child to exercise set a good example with your own fitness activities, find activities that your child is interested in and have the whole family exercise together--hiking, biking, roller skating, walking the dog, kicking the soccer ball, shooting hoops, swimming, dancing and finding ways to get up and get moving.

Treatment

• If your child already has a weight problem, the last thing you want to do is to make her feel bad about it. Be positive in your approach. Talk to her about the importance of her health rather than her appearance. Begin now to incorporate better nutrition, less screen time and more exercise into your daily routine as well as hers. Start gradually with your family's new habits, be flexible and be forgiving of setbacks and celebrate small successes. Recognize and avoid triggers. If you always get fast food on car trips, start packing healthy snacks and bottles of water for your car trips. Have your child set realistic goals such as snacking on fruit instead of chips in the afternoon or going for a bike ride three times a week. When she starts meeting her goal, notice it, praise her and talk to her about it. You can mark significant habit improvements with a family picnic or trip to the beach as a celebration.