Online Writing by Fran Aslam

Childhood Obesity Prevention

September 2011, is the National Childhood Obesity Awareness month. And I am dedicating my writing skill to Childhood Obesity prevention. Everyone is feeling how overweight children are increasing in numbers and obesity is rising to a higher level.. We all have to work harder to put a stop to it, as overweight children are not healthy. Here are some of the preventative measures.

1. Pay attention to  healthy eating habits:

Accept the responsibility and start changing to healthy eating habits is the first step.  As a preventive measure start from healthy meal planning, to what goes in the meals, everyday, by every member of the family. Watch the potion size and number of meals taken in a day. You may even pay attention to food calorie calculator and food calorie charts. A great parental activity that can easily bring every one closer with a new bond.

2. Physical activities for kids

Physical activity and health are interconnected. Health excels with activity Make it a part of family fun to do weekly chores together. Kids at home will feel important and will enjoy this time with parents. Add daily or three four times a week walk together. Go to the park, play with the kids. This is the primary preventive measure for childhood obesity.

3. Regular medical check ups:

All kids have to go to the doctor for a medical check up. This is important for all ages but extremely important for infants, so child growth chart can be monitored, weight, height normal BMI and growth percentile record is kept in tact. Changes are observed by the pediatrician doctor and healthy weight is maintained. Keep an eye on this preventive measure as a parent as it is your responsibility to care for your child and not let the child grow over weight or under weight at this age. Be aware of the fact that once overweight, it is an struggle to make it normal and keep it that way. It is almost impossible not to get some life time ailments like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and several other complication, once a child turns overweight.

4. Let the family set an example:

Children unconsciously learn from the rest of the family. Take care of yourself, eat right and be active, children will follow your healthy eating habits naturally. Saturday and Sunday mornings can become family exercise activity time. It is entertaining. It creates a bond together and creates memories and at the same time it is a good workout for maintaining health body and normal body weight.

Vegetables The Nutrional Food

5. Pay attention to drinks:

Do not let kids digest too many calories from drinks. Avoid carbonated soft drinks. Make sure that juice is no sugar added, just simple fruit and vegetable juice is perfect. Not too many drinks of juice in a day for everyone. Fruit by itself is better as it includes fiber which is a healthy part of your diet. Plain water is simply awesome, for kids and you in general, but milk and Juice do provide added nutrients.

6. Food as a reward:

Do not reward yourself or children with food that is not healthy  Be realistic and eat whatever you want at the regular eating time, lunch dinner, breakfast and snack times. Children will adopt the same rules, that there is a time to eat and will not be hungry all the time. Rewarding children with food for their good behavior or stopping them from crying is not a good idea, extra calories will pile up on them in the form of fat. You do not want that.

7. Junk-food:

If you did not serve junk food to the children, it is not they will not get to see it. Other children will talk about it, they will see others eating it, will want to eat it. So plan ahead of time and introduce them empty calories junk, let them have it sometimes, so they can talk about it with their friends eat with them, but do not make it readily available all the time, to pile up extra body fat. Find a way to explain this high calories, no nutrition food, they way they can know facts about it.

8. Fast food:

Fast food is a part of our lifestyle, so children have to know about it and have it sometimes. But stressing the importance of eating fruits vegetables, making it available all the time, and making it feel good food is also important. So child knows that fast food is a replacement when home made food is not easy to reach. Fast food must be presented to the children in such away that they may take it as a food that can be eaten sometimes only. As it is over caloric, oily and not so healthy. Be very careful to introduce fast food to an overweight child. With your healthy meal planning, you can easily avoid fast food.

Fruits Packed with Vitamins and Minerals

9. Follow new dietary guidelines:

First lady Michelle Obama has introduced new dietary guidelines this year. I will say the easiest way to remember these new and healthy guidelines is to treat your vegetables as your entrée and meat as the side. Food pyramid for kids is the new plate introduced by the first lady Michele Obama and USDA. Using whole wheat bread is a great healthy eating habit if children easily adopt it. They will adopt it easily if you are using the same. one of the best way to prevent obesity is to have portion control and fill yourself with greens and fruits that have all the vitamins and antioxidants and don’t put on extra pound. Doing all this follow the latest food trends so you are eating what is in and children can feel an active part of the society and do not feel deprived of what every one is doing.

10. Planned and gradual changes in eating habits:

If you are motivated right now and want to change your and your kids eating habits, it is very hard to change drastically to eat healthy. You will have to figure out a way to introduce one easy step at a time. Slow and easy change can be easily adopted and will not create problems. Give time to let it become a habit and a pleasure, then start another challenge for yourself and your children. Gradually you will achieve the ultimate goal.

11. Fruits Vegetables and Wholegrain are nutritional food:

Make eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains a major part of daily diet. If you are switching to the new health life style for kids and you now, it can happen for you and your children, persistence and planning is the key. Keep the benefits in mind.

12. Least saturated fats:

Saturated fats food have been found to be very unhealthy for human consumption and cause major problems if used excessively. So avoid foods with saturated fats. For example hydrogenated fats, meat, processes meat, bacon, sausages, bologna, egg yolks, butter, cream, and even some ice-creams that have saturated fats. Both saturated and unsaturated fats add to obesity, but fats are required by the body and brain to function normally. So using healthier fats in the required amount is the key.

When it comes to children, we have to figure out about every age how exactly to change their habits, every child needs to be handled in a different way depending on the age health and child’s temperament.

I wish every child on the globe to eat healthy and nutritional food and they may keep these habits through out life. Both nutrition and fitness is important for preventive measures for obesity This is a great goal for a mother for parents to be. Many parents preplan their kids lifestyle however, eating habits sometimes are ignored. Your child’s eating habits and activity level is first priority when you create a success plan for your child’s early years.

With best wishes for all the children

 Pictures courtesy of Digital Photos

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