Fighting Childhood Obesity With Family Mealtimes

One of the biggest misfortunes of modern living is obesity in children. Don't become discouraged or feel like a failure when your child gains weight or begins 'sneaking food'. Latner JD, Stunkard AJ. Getting worse: the stigmatisation of obese children. Skelton JA. Management of childhood obesity in the primary care setting. But pushing food on kids who aren't really hungry overrides one of their body's primary weight-control mechanisms.

Eating out presents another challenge for overweight children, especially when they begin buying their own food. But weight loss is not always the goal when treating excessive weight in childhood. Don't make your child feel guilty about their eating habits. Focus on your whole family—not just your overweight child.

Take your child grocery shopping and let him or her choose healthy foods and drinks, and help plan and prepare healthy meals and snacks. Overweight kids may be taller and more sexually mature than their peers, raising expectations that they should act as old as they look, not as old as they are.

5. Freedman, DS et al. The relation of overweight to cardiovascular risk factors among children and adolescents: The Bogalusa Heart Study. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.

Children Fitness coach for teens Longwood do not understand why they want to eat more, they just do. Don't blame yourself for this if you have no reason to. Some kids just come with bigger appetites and have food preferences that are not healthy. Encourage them to make healthy choices when outside the home and to be active every day.