Child Obesity And Diet
By Margaret Tye, Fri Dec 9th

This article is looking at child as the result of poordiet. Medical conditions resulting in child obesity, or thephysical appearance of obesity, are issues to be discussed withyour physician and beyond the scope of this article.

If you are concerned about your child possibly being overweightthen you need to decide whether the excess weight is part of agrowth pattern, that may change over time, or whether there is aweight problem. Your doctor will advise you on this. Childobesity can result in an increase in health problems. Don't beembarrassed about seeking help, your doctor would rather treatchild or teen now, than diabetes or heartdisease later.

Statistics show that the level of child in America isamongst the highest in the world, and a major cause is a diet offast food, or food that is high in fat or sugar. Most children,with a change in diet and an increase in exercise, should see animprovement.

Look at the diet of your child. Is it mainly takeaways andprocessed food? These often contain high levels of fat, sugarand salt and should be cut back. Snacking is a bad habit, thinkof the calories in a candy bar! Fizzy drinks can also pile onthe weight, when pure water is what the body really needs.

Every parent should try to implement the 5 A Day program. Atfirst it may seem difficult to serve five portions of fruit andvegetables, never mind persuading your child to eat them, but ifyou study a list of suitable foods it is surprising how varied adiet you can provide. A glass of orange juice at breakfast, abanana mid- morning, beans or salad for lunch, fresh or frozenvegetables with dinner, dried fruit as a snack, the list isendless once you start looking. Having found the right food, thenext problem is persuading your child to eat it . Try makingsmall changes gradually altering the eating habits of the wholefamily. Unless a child is very overweight, maintaining thepresent weight without increasing it and letting the child growto

absorb the excess fat, is better than dramatic dieting. Askyour doctor about this as he can make a decision based on yourchild's age and weight.

One idea worth considering is to appeal to your child'sconsideration for others. Nowadays there is a lot of publicitygiven to world poverty and children are generally responsive tothe needs of others. Get your child to add up how many dollarsyou spend monthly on expensive fast food, snacks and fizzydrinks, then consider spending that money on sponsoring a child.If your child feels he is helping to feed or educate another, itmay well be the incentive needed. If you feel you cannot makesuch a commitment, why not just have a poverty jar, every timeyour child eats a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar, put afew cents into the jar and then let him/her chose which charityto give it to. But don't make him feel guilty about others,anorexia isn't healthy either!

The next thing to consider is increasing the amount of exerciseyour child takes and cutting the number of hours that televisionis watched. Overweight children find exercise difficult so startby increasing it slowly. Just walking a few hundred yards dailyis a start. Your child may try to avoid exercise, but rememberhe may have been teased at school about being fat and failing tobe athletic. As weight is lost, exercise will become easier andconfidence increase, then he will become more willing to try newsports.

Finally remember that children need the support of the wholefamily if they is going to lose weight. If everyone follows asensible diet your child is much more likely to succeed.

Advice on health matters should always be confirmed by a doctorand no liability is accepted for action taken.

About the author:Margaret Tye runs the FromTots2Teens website that offersinformation on supplies for children of all ages as well asadvice on health and other child and teenage related problems.You are welcome to use this article as long as it is not alteredand credit is given to the author, with a link back to thissite. FromTots2Teens http://www.fromtots2teens.com Please paythe site a visit.