Dealing with Chilhood Obesity

Your child must lose…to win!

Do you know that more than 17% American children and adolescents suffer from childhood obesity? In fact, the problem of obesity or abnormally high weight is continuously rising among children. This has resulted in a growing concern for both health care providers and the parents. What is even more alarming is that not many people are fully aware of the consequences of this problem. The complications which may arise due to uncontrolled obesity include diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, arthritis, and reduced mobility and life expectancy.

For the same reason, it is vital for the parents to address the issue as early as possible as, after all, prevention is better than cure. Read on to discover some simple, easy and cost-effective measures to deal with the condition.

So, what makes your kid overweight? 

Your child’s body gets the energy it needs from the food he / she eats (Input). This energy is used to perform physical activity (Output). The unused energy is stored in the body is stored as fat. Therefore if, for some reason, this input is more than the output, it will cause your kid to become fat or obese.

What are the risk factors?

Some common factors that may cause your child to become overweight or obese include:

Food preferences: Foods rich in fat and sugar

Lack of physical activity: Sedentary lifestyle

Family history: If parents are obese, children have more chances of being over weight

What you can do?

Remember, being closer than anyone, parents have the main influence on the diet and life style pattern of their children. Therefore, simple measures and easy tactics in the home can have a significant impact on reducing your child’s overweight or obesity. It is always better to address the problem as early as possible as most overweight children become overweight adults as well.

Following recommended measures are of utmost importance in managing the overweight or obesity of your child.

Enhancement in physical activity

TV viewing should be limited to no more than 2 hours per day, discourage TV in kid’s room.

Plan and execute activities that kids and family view as fun. Walking the dog is great daily exercise that also teaches children about having the extra responsibility of something in their care.

Develop plan for increasing activities, such as family outings to parks. Alternatively, you can suggest indoor activities such as dancing or jumping rope. Children also love to play games like skipping, hide and seek, hopscotch and tag.

Suggest gifts/rewards that promote physical activity, such as active games, music CDs, or DVDs. With a little incentive you could get the kids doing chores like sweeping the yard, cleaning the family car or even weeding the garden.

It is, however, important to remember that when you child is involved in long exercises; they should include a gradual warming up and cooling down periods. Examples of warming up exercises are brisk walking or jogging on the spot. Similarly, when cooling down, stretching exercises help to restore the muscles resting length. 

Improvement in eating habits

You should choose a balanced diet for your child, essentially representing the major food groups of whole grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes. It should also include dairy products, fish, meat and poultry.

Look for unhealthy dietary habits. Limit fast foods or providing lower fat alternatives, eliminating soft drinks or switching to low calorie drinks, changing to 2% or skimmed milk, substituting low-calorie, high-fiber snacks (low-fat popcorn, fruits, or vegetables) for the high calorie ones.

Never let your kid skip his / her breakfast. However, you should limit your kid’s daily food consumption to frequent small meals instead of a fewer large meals. A difference of three hours between two meals is mostly recommended, constructing 4 to 5 small meals each day.

In short, if managed early and properly, childhood obesity can be successfully controlled. Necessary measures, if taken early by the parents, can change the outcome for obese children or even prevent it happening in the first place. However, such change should be gradual and parents must plan for small, single changes at a time.

Have a healthy and productive weekend!

MJ

Shaklee, helping families live healthier lifestyles since 1956! 

http://mjshealthyway.com 

I lost 37 pounds with Shaklee 180! Check it out! 

http://weightloss180.info 

Article resource

Pre-packaged foods for toddlers too high in sodium, says study

Limiting salt intake is an oft-repeated piece of health advice for adults, because too much sodium over time may increase risk for heart attack and strokes.

U.S. dietary guidelines suggest people should take in no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day, while the American Heart Association recommends an even lower amount of 1,500 milligrams. Surveys, however, show most Americans are averaging 3,400 milligrams each day.

Now, a new study suggests toddlers also may be getting far too much salt if they're eating pre-packaged foods. Researchers tested random products and found 75 percent of pre-packaged meals and savory snacks for toddlers were high in sodium. The authors fear taking in too much salt at such an early age can lead to unhealthy habits that last a lifetime.

"Our concern is the possible long-term health risks of introducing high levels of sodium in a child's diet, because high blood pressure, as well as a preference for salty foods may develop early in life," lead researcher Joyce Maalouf, a fellow at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a statement. "The less sodium in an infant's or toddler's diet, the less he or she may want it when older."

Sodium overkill: Top 10 culprits in U.S. diet

For the study, which is considered preliminary since it was presented at a medical conference and is not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, Maalouf and her team looked at 1,115 food products for babies and toddlers, which included pre-packaged meals and snacks. A product was considered high in sodium by researchers if it contained more than 210 milligrams per serving.

They found toddler meals on average had significantly more sodium than baby meals, with some as high as 630 milligrams per serving. That means one toddler meal contains 40 percent of the AHA's daily recommended allotment of sodium, according to the AHA.

The study echoes previous research that pre-packaged foods are major culprits for dietary sodium. It was presented March 21 at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in New Orleans.

"I'm not too surprised," Andrea Rumschlag, a pediatric dietician at the Cleveland Clinic told CBSNews.com of the study's findings. She was not involved in the research.

"It's good information for parents to see that packaged food in any way, shape or form is always going to be high in sodium."

Rumschlag equates some of these pre-packaged toddler meals to frozen TV dinners for adults, which can be high in salt. While the AHA recommends a daily limit of 1,500 milligrams of sodium, she said that toddlers ages 1 to 3 should have even less -- no more than 1,000 milligrams per day. Toddlers have more sensitive taste buds, she added, so if they're used to salty foods from the get go, they're more likely to reach for a salt shaker as they get older to compensate. That could contribute to their risk of high blood pressure and cardiac problems later in life.

"You're setting them up to have that salty taste," she said.

• Cutting salt to recommended levels could prevent hundreds of thousands deaths
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Rumschlag recommends that if parents are going to buy pre-packaged foods, check the label and skip items that contain more than 100 milligrams of sodium. Fresh, canned or frozen fruits are a better snack option than a child-sized pack of crackers, she said.

"They can still be nutritious, still be quick, but won't have as many of these additives," she said.

Thanks to CBS.com for the article!