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Teaching a child respect for himself begins with respecting him. This means allowing him to make his own decisions on as many fronts as possible, including food. Involving your child in nutrition education is good method of showing him that you respect his good sense. Once he understands which foods are best for him, he should be involved in the decisions about what to eat. After all, it is his body, and what goes into it is ultimately his choice, not his parents' choice.
If you think that your child needs a special diet, start by taking him for a complete physical examination to a sympathetic health-care worker, erhaps a nutritionist who specializes in treating children. You may also want to consider enlisting the aid of an outside role model, such as a favorite teacher, scout leader, or family friend, to encourage the child to get his weight under control. (Children who resist the efforts of their parents may respond more favarably to a sympathetic outsider.)
Most overweight children don't need diets or special diet foods; they just need to learn to eat fewer high-calorie, low-nutrient-value foods and, most important, they need to exercise a little more.
When you are considering the best ways to feed an overweight child, take time to examine your family's diet as a whole. Do you serve a good variety of foods? Are fruits and vegetables important for snacks as well as meals? Do you keep fatty snacks and sodas (both the sugary and the diet kind) around the house, or do you encourge - especially by example, the eating of fruit, vegetables, plain crackers, and other nutritious snacks? Do you cook with a lot of fat and sugar? Do you eat chicken and fish more than beefor and pork, and do you trim them of fat before cooking? This may be the time to reevaluate how you cook and eat. The whole family can benefit from a diet in which the consumption of fats and simple carbohydrates, such as cookies and chips, is lowered and consumption of complex carbohydrates, such as fruit, vegetables, bread, and grain, is increased. Make everyone's portion sizes a little smaller and don't automatically offer seconds. (You might want to keep serving dishes out of sight.) It's a lot easier for the overweight child to eat the right things when the whole family does.
Bake or broil foods instead of frying them, and cut down on teh amount of fats used to season foods, too. A teaspoon of butter or margarine served on steamed vegetables wil probably satisfy everyone as much as a tablespoon or more. They might even like a squeeze of lemon juice, instead. Low-calorie popcorn served without butter can be just as pleasing to most people as fried potato or corn chips - especially if it's the only thing available.
Again, don't treat an overweight child differently from the rest of the family. For instance, don't ever forbid him to eat high-calorie foods while allowing others in the family to do so. Don't nag him about his eating habits or his weight. Nagging will only make him resentful and guilty. It will not make him thin.
Many overweight children do not eat more than their average-weight peers. Some even eat less. More important than the amount of food eaten is the fact that overweight children tend to be much less physically active than their leaner friends. Children of normal weight usually balance their food needs with their energy expenditure. The more they move around, the more they eat and vice versa. Chubbier children generally eat the same amount regardless of whether they have exercised or not. They don't conusme more calories than other children; they just burn fewer.
Overweight kids have a chicken-and-egg problem when it comes to exercise: Because of their excess weight, it's uncomfortable, and perhaps embarassing, to exercise, so they abstain from movement and keep gaining weight, which makes exercise even less appealing.
One of the keys to successful weight control for anyone, adult or child, is getting exercise on a regular basis. We hear a great deal about how unfit America's youngsters are, even in the middle of the current exercise boom. WHile more and more parents today are huffing and puffing through their routines, their kids are home watching TV. In any case, kids need exercise like everyone else, and a child with a weight problem needs it most. "Exercise," of course, is not limited to push-ups and aerobic dancing, although both activities can be handled by most children. The best physical activities for children however, are the kind that encourage interacting among playmates - such as biking, running, and climbing - thus building social skills along with muscles.
One of the best things parents can do for all of their kids is to make exercise a regular part of their lives from an early age. Emphasize how good exercise makes you feel (not how good it makes you look). With young children, a playful exercise program can start with stretches with Mom or Dad and move walking, jogging, and swimming together. Arrange family outings that revolved around activity. As kids get older, take them bowling, horseback riding, or roller skating. Go for hikes in teh country or fly kites on the beach. Have fun.
Whatever the weight status of your child is, you can halp him cope with it. Ultimately, for all children's weight problems the prescription is the same: a balanced diet of good food, exercise - and affection.
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