Obesity And Your Child

Obesity is among the leading health problems of children experienced by parents. 1 out of 5 American children are suffering from obesity, an alarming statistic that should be addressed both by the government and by parents.

The problem with obesity is that it’s hard to treat although easy to detect. A pediatrician determines if your child is overweight or obese with the use of BMI (body mass index) percentile.

Your child’s height, weight, and age is used to as determinants for calculating his BMI.

An overweight child has between 85-94 percentile while an obese child has equal to or more than 95 percentile.

CAUSE
Obesity is caused by a number of health and environmental factors. Knowing the cause may help parents come up with the right solution to help treat their children’s obesity.

* Genetic predisposition – if a child has a parent that is obese, the child has a 50% chance of being one.

* Metabolic disorders – juvenile diabetes can cause obesity in children due to lack of insulin that helps metabolize blood sugar.

* Lack of physical activity – the advent of computer and console games has decreased the activity level of children. This leads to low metabolic rate which in turn results to storing of fats.

* Over-eating and poor diet control – when you train your kids at an early age to always take in an extra helping during each meal, they will be conditioned to take in more than the recommended dietary level and carry the habit as they grow.

Letting your kids eat whatever they want like junk food, chocolates, hamburgers and French fries without portion control and vegetables greatly predisposes your child to obesity.

Over-eating can result from:

o Difficulties at school
o Problems at home
o Peer pressure
o Low self-esteem
o Depression

* Medication – steroids can lower your child’s metabolic rate and also cause some water-retention issues that can increase your child’s weight.

TREATMENT
It’s difficult to treat obesity even though the cause of the problem has been known. If the problem stems from a metabolic disorder, or medication these must be addressed before you start to solve your child’s obesity.

In addressing obesity itself, you must have a daily plan of activities geared towards weight loss of your child.

* Increase your child’s physical activity by engaging him in an exercise program that is suitable for kids of his age and activity tolerance.

Obese children cannot tolerate too much activity for their excessive body weight can cause them to get tired and flustered easily.

Your fitness instructor must be understanding so as not to push your child too much, but firm enough not to give in when your child bargains for a break that lasts for more than 30 minutes per exercise program.

* If you have a Nintendo Wii, then you’re in luck. This gaming console is just perfect to get your child to move.

Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Wii Yoga can entice your child do get some physical activity while playing with his favorite console.

* Monitor your child’s diet. Do not, repeat, DO NOT have your child go on a cold-turkey diet.

If your child is used to eating 2 burgers in one sitting every day, do not stop him when he ate half of a burger. Gradually taper down his diet so that his stomach and appetite will adjust accordingly.

Cold-turkey diet may show some results in a week, but can cause rebound weight gain when your child could no longer control his hunger pangs.

Using burgers as an example, say on Monday he had a snack of 2 burgers and a large soda. On Tuesday, tell him that he can only eat 1 and ½ burger with his large soda.

5 days later, tell him that his 1 and ½ burger can only be washed down with a medium sized soda.

4 days later, his burger should now be just 1, with a medium sized soda. After a couple of days, get the soda down to regular. Then gradually increase the interval between days that he would consume his favorite burger.

It is a slow, time consuming process, but that would make sure that his cravings and appetite will be programmed to fit your weight loss program.

* If you cannot come up with a healthy daily diet for your child, ask a nutritionist and a dietitian to do it for you.

* Do not let your child eat while watching the TV. His attention will be glued to what he’s watching he would fail to perform portion control.

* Be a model to your child. Jog everyday and bring him along. Show that you’re also doing portion control and always provide a good healthy meal not just for him, but for the entire family as well.

Curing obesity takes time, patience, and effort. The entire family must collaborate in order to help sibling who is obese.

Remember to always give positive reinforcements for obese children are insecure due to the view of society with regards to obese individuals.

Do not always point out his weight problem, but tell him he needs to be healthy and fit so he can enjoy his family, friends, and school.

Warren Tattersall has been a full time nutritional consultant for over a decade and works with people all over the work to help them improve their health, increase their personal energy levels and to use supplements to assist with diet related health issues.

If you are looking for a safe and natural rapid weight loss program that is also convenient and affordable, you should check this site out, and also get the healthy weight loss answers you have been looking for. Remember to grab your free diet tips ebook downloads as well while you are there!

To have a free personal consultation with him to learn how incorporating nutritional supplements may improve your health concerns just visit “The Health Success Site” and download the free health report available there, or email warren@TheHealthSuccessSite.com to request a personal one-on-one consultation by email or phone.