Simple Tricks to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Home » Blog » Simple Tricks to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Simple Tricks to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Image Credit: Pixabay

The world is suffering from a global epidemic of obesity. Being overweight is weight higher than weight for a particular age or height. Obesity is excess body fat in addition to excess weight. So, here we will discuss the causes of childhood obesity and the simple tricks to prevent childhood obesity.

Reasons for Childhood Obesity

In some instances, hormonal disorders, genetic problems, and medications may associated with being overweight or obese. But more than anything else, obesity is considered a lifestyle disease.

Lifestyle Factors

Faulty Diet Pattern

Some parents keep focusing on their child’s weight. They think the overweight child is healthy. So, that becomes a negative influence on the child’s diet pattern. Unhealthy dietary habits like fore-going breastfeeding, excessive use for bottle-feeding and readymade baby foods, and feeding large portions start in the early months of a baby’s life.

Such poor dietary habits deteriorate. In later years, there is a lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet and an increased intake of “unessential” pleasure foods like cakes, chocolates, chips, colas, donuts, and ice creams. Instead of fresh, home-cooked food, children often eat fast foods, pre-packaged foods, and restaurant foods. The portion sizes have increased drastically in the home and outside.

Decreased Physical Activity

Increasingly insecure social environments and education workload have ensured that children spend more time cooped up at home than actively playing outside. Playing with electronic devices (computers and gadgets) and watching television has become the main childhood activities.

More and more schools are cutting physical education programs altogether or reducing the time spent on fitness-building physical activities. The lack of physical activity is equally or, perhaps even more important than that of wrong food habits in making today’s children fat.

Dangers of Childhood Obesity

Overweight children are at risk of developing medical problems, which also affect their present and future health. It has a direct impact on their quality of life.

Immediate Dangers

Overweight and obese children are more prone to serious medical problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, liver and gall bladder diseases, and bone and joint problems. They have an increased chance of developing asthma and stoppages in breathing while sleeping.

Overweight children may be taller and more sexually mature than their peers, creating expectations that they should behave as old as they look, not as old as they are.

These children often face isolation and ridicules from their peers. It can result from high depression and low self-esteem. They can develop food-related psychological problems, like anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Future Dangers

Obese children and adolescents are likely to be obese like adults and are more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and osteoarthritis. Many types of cancer are happening due to obesity. Overweight girls may have irregular menstrual cycles and fertility problems in adulthood.

So, the parents should follow the simple tricks to prevent childhood obesity.

Parent’s Responsibility to Counter Childhood Obesity

Good Food Habits

  1. Breast-feed in infancy
  2. Avoid or limit bottle-feeding
  3. Give home-cooked, fresh foods rather than readymade processed foods.
  4. Give smaller portions of food. Don’t be over-concerned about how much your child eats.
  5. Make your child eat fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, low-fat dairy, lean meats, and mono-unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. Try to achieve a balanced diet.
  6. Avoid excess sugar, salt, and saturated or trans fats.
  7. Limit fast foods and unessential “Pleasure” foods.
  8. While eating out in restaurants, choose the right menu items (e.g., grilled or steamed dishes rather than fried dishes) and ask for smaller portions.

Physical Activity

  1. Encourage sports activities, like running, swimming, cycling, outdoor games (e.g., kho-kho, kabaddi, football, cricket, hockey), and indoor games (e.g., basketball, squash, badminton). It burns accumulated calories.
  2. Limit the idle time spent indoors in front of a computer, gadget, or television.
  3. Be sure; that the school’s physical education program is adequate to keep your child active.
  4. Group physical activities (arts, yoga, exercise training, dance) are suitable for older children.

          Parental Role Model

  1. Don’t equate your child’s weight with his health.
  2. Don’t force food on a child if they do not want to eat.
  3. Don’t use food as a reward or punishment.
  4. Make an extra effort to cultivate good food habits and exercise regularly. Because children often pick up their parent’s habits, consciously or unconsciously.
  5. If you are managing an obese child’s diet, make sure that the entire family participates as a unit in that diet plan. It does not mean that healthy family members have to cut down their food intake, but they all should follow the advised dietary changes such as avoiding the so-called “pleasure foods” and fast foods at the dining table.

Disclaimer: The above content has not come from any researched studies. Take it for informational purposes only.