Children who are obese, have higher risk of acquiring asthma, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and high blood pressure. Their emotions can also be tempered with, as they can be bullied or made jest of by their peers who have healthy weight. As a parent, you should learn how to control the weight of your kids from their infant stage, so as to prevent childhood obesity.
Obesity during childhood, increases the likelihood of becoming an obese adult, and it can complicates to health issues like diabetes, cancer and heart disease. As a parent, it is quite true that it is not always easy to identify if a child has a weight problem. Children have differences in their growth rates, and changes in body fat also differs among boys and girls. You can always ask your family pediatrician to review your child's growth chat with you. During checkups, they should check on your child's BMI (Body Mass Index) and relate it with his or her age.
The reports gotten from the check up, will give you a clear picture of your child's measurement compared with other kids of the same age and gender. The result will indicate if your child is obese or overweight. The pediatrician will compare the pattern rather than an individual number.
If your child is building up an unhealthy amount of weight, your pediatrician may recommend he or she is been placed on a weight loss diet. It is also important that your child follow a healthy diet which provides all the recommended nutrition he or she needs for proper growth and development. For children who are overweight and yet still growing, the aim is to maintain their weight or slow down the rate of weight gain while they grow taller. Growing teenagers can also lose one to two pounds a week.
If you noticed that your child is going down the fat lane and you are concerned about it, the following tips can help keep him or her healthy and prevent any form of gaining excess weight .
Tips For Raising Healthy Children And Prevent Obesity
1. Start with a low glycemic foods for breakfast
Serving your child foods with low glycemic index (GI) for breakfast can help him or her feel full for longer period, thereby eliminating every form of overeating. The low GI foods includes whole bread, milk, yogurt, nuts and fruits. These foods ae digested slowly, thereby leading to a gradual, sustained rise in blood sugar.
You can as well include sources of proteins n their breakfast too, like; eggs, cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken etc.
2. Avoid sugary drinks
Reducing the intake of sugary drinks like; 100% fruit juice, sports drinks, and soft drinks can have a great impact in your child's daily calorie intake. For some children, this can promote weight loss. You can encourage them to drink more of water instead of those sugary drinks.
3. Follow the plate model
You can also follow the plate model to control your child's weight. This is done by filling one-quarter of your child's plate with protein (e.g fish, chicken, tofu, lean meat, beans etc), one-quarter with healthy carbs (e.g sweet potato, brown rice, pasta, whole fruit) and the rest with vegetables (either cooked or raw). All these add volume tomeals with fewer calories.
If you feel your child have been eaten from large portions, you can serve smaller amounts of food and allow him/her to ask for more if still hungry.
4. Plan family meals
Studies have proven that children eat more fruits and vegetables and less unhealthy foods, and have reduced risk of getting of obese when they regularly ear family dinners. If you are so occupied during the week that it prevents you from sharing dinner together, you can as well use other shared mealtimes to foster healthy eating habits.
5. Carry the whole family along
For a perfect result, try to carry the whole family along. You should use the same healthy eating approach for the whole family. Most children learn their habits from their parents, so you should model healthy eating and exercise practices.
6. Get your children involved
You can get you children involved by enlisting them in meal planning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, even setting the table and cleaning up. Children who partake in the preparation of healthy meals are more likely to eat healthy too.
Prepare meals that gives different roles to your children, such as mixing ingredients, chopping vegetables, shedding lettuce, or dressing the salad.
7. Ensure adequate sleep
There are various evidences that proves that children who gets too little sleep are more likely to become obese or overweight. The same goes for adult too. So you can help your children to adopt various ways of improving their sleep.
Children ages 3 to 5 years need 10 to 13 hours of good sleep at night, school-aged kids need 9 to 11 hours, and teenagers should get about 8 to 10 hours of sleep.
8. Limit screen time
Excess screen time in front of the Television, Tablet or Computer has been linked to obesity, irregular sleep schedules and shorter sleep duration. Young infants aged 18 month and below should not be exposed to digital media. For children between the ages of 2 and 5, try and limit their screen time to one hour per day. For older children, you should set up restrictions for them and enforce those daily and weekly limits and curfews. You should let them know that physical activity and sleep are more important than screen time.
Conclusion
Though obesity remains an epidemic, that does not warrant you to raise an overweight or obese child. You can always adopt this set of tips and learn how to maintain the weight of your growing child. If you find this information useful, kindly use the social share buttons below to pass this message across to your friends and families on various social media.
