Millions of children in the US and other countries are becoming obese. This is a real cause for concern, as it puts children and teenagers at risk for many health problems. Fortunately, there are many things parents can do to help kids who are overweight. One way to fight obesity is to keep your child active and below you’ll find a few suggestions.
One of the best things you can do to encourage your child to be active is to organize healthy family activities. This won’t just benefit your child but your entire family as well. It can be a way for parents and children to bond and for everyone to get some fresh air and exercise. Some activities you can do with your child include swimming, biking, and hiking. Dogs can also provide a good excuse for exercise, and they can be included in family adventures. And when you go on family vacations, it’s important that you keep your child engaged in healthy activities. It won’t help your child if you spend hours driving around or riding in a tour bus. When you get the whole family involved in healthy activities, you’re teaching your child healthy habits.
It’s crucial that you educate yourself on nutrition if your goal is to help your child get to a healthy weight. When you become knowledgeable on nutrition, you’re actually going to help not just your child, but your whole family. Take note, though, that nutrition isn’t just all about keeping track of the calories consumed and calories burned. Nutrition also involves knowing nutritional requirements, as well as identifying the healthy foods from the unhealthy ones. And when you go shopping, you’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned by reading food labels. A lot of packaged foods touted as healthy are not healthy at all, as they have high fat and calorie content. And when you take your family out to eat, you should be able to estimate how fattening take-out foods and restaurant foods are.
Eating huge portions is one habit that many adults and children develop. In children, this habit usually starts when the parent always insist that their child not leave anything on the plate. You’d obviously prompt your child to eat more if he or she appears to be underweight or isn’t eating enough. But if your child is overweight, you shouldn’t contribute to the problem and put too much food on the plate. This can be a big problem when you’re eating out or ordering from fast food places. It’s best to start with a smaller portion and take more if the child is still hungry, as putting large amounts of food in front of a child will only encourage him or her to overeat.
As a parent, you can do many things to make sure your child stays at a healthy weight. The above are just some of the tactics that you can keep in mind to help your child develop healthier habits. If your child does have a weight problem, be patient and keep your expectations reasonable. If your child needs to lose weight, you’ll need to make sure you give him or her lots of encouragement and help because it isn’t easy to lose weight.
