Helping Your Child Lose Weight

Simple Steps to Fight Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is becoming an epidemic. Overweight children are at significantly higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, thyroid dysfunction, illness, cancer, and many other health issues if they do not learn to manage their weight an an appropriate level. It falls to parents to re-teach their children good lifestyle habits to help them lose weight.

Crash and fad diets are not healthy, failing not only to keep the weight off of children but often causing additional health problems. Counting every calorie a child eats is very difficult, and not all parents can afford to take children to weight loss programs. The good news is that there are simple rules to helping your child lose weight.

Learn appropriate portion sizing, and teach your children. Our nation, as a whole, has a poor concept of appropriate portion size. "Super-sizing" and "Value Meals" have instilled in our young people that more is better. Teaching children, and ourselves, what a real portion looks like can be difficult and dissapointing; but, it is absolutely necessary to maintain good eating habits. Children are never going to regularly measure their food, but these simple guidelines can help you and them know how much a "portion" really is, according to BioEd Online:

1 Portion of Meat is the size of a fist.

1 portion of rice, fruit, pasta, or vegetables is the size of a tennis ball.

1 serving of grain fits into a cupped hand.

1 portion of cheese is two fingers

Cut out fruit juice. Fruit juice, despite the AMA's protestations, do not count as fruit. They contain none of the dietary fiber whole fruit has, and often have added sugar. Dietary fiber in fruit is what fills a child up, taking the edge off of hunger. It also keeps the child's blood sugar from spiking, and causing other health concerns such as hyperactivity, ADD/ADHD symptoms, or sugar addiction. Since juice has little to no fiber, replace juice with water and whole fruits.