How To Deal With The International Child Fatness Pandemic
Lately the worldwide problem of a high childhood obesity rate is more and more prominent in all the news media. If a child is obese it can lead to serious health issues for the child like diabetes, dyslipidemia, heart health issues, skeletal disorders, sleep disorders and problems, psychological problems and symptoms and gastro-intestinal spasms. Such disorders can be expected to continue into adulthood. Recent studies have shown that if a child is obese it is extremely likely that adult obesity will follow.
Despite all the above, parents can easily impact on the lifestyle of their children and guide them to achieve a healthy lifestyle and remain healthy.
What is the role needed from parents to make a contribution to the prevention of obesity in their child? Parents must address the causes of child obesity. Parents must give their children a lot of attention and help them to feel wanted. If your child is neglected by you there is an increased possibility of obesity compared to other children. Be sure not to force your kids to eat more than they feel like at mealtime, all you will achieve is to train your child’s metabolic system to make your child eat more than he or she needs.
Do not emphasize too much the amount of food eaten. It is much more important that the child must eat healthy food and then also get sufficient exercise to burn of the calories. If you worry too much about your child’s weight you are going to encourage eating behaviours that are abnormal.
Your child should not spend so much time in front of the telly. As your child spends more time in front of the TV so he or she will be more obese, watching television is obviously going to reduce physical activities by the child, it then consequently also reduces the metabolism of the body. The junk food commercials on television also affects children, they are encouraged to eat more junk food and drink beverages with high levels of sugar leading to increased weight problems for the kid.
If you are thinking that your child weighs more than his or her ideal weight and that there is a risk of obesity, consult with a physician as soon as you can, to ensure that obesity is halted quickly and effectively. It is not really necessary for expecting mothers to eat for two persons, if you eat too much while you are pregnant there is a good chance that both you and your unborn child will become obese. The young infant must be breastfeeded for at least one year. While the child is still very small, there should be strong emphasis on fruits, grains and other fresh produce while closely watching to see if the child is really hungry before being fed.
If the risk that your child will become obese is high, try using low fat milk instead of the richer variety. Sugar and fat containing snacks must be avoided, because they are high in low nutritional value calories. For kids that are still of school going age, you must enforce rules as to how much time can be spent each day watching television, snacks must be nutritious, treats can be allowed occasionally and generally good food habits must be encouraged.
The child obesity epidemic is not static, it keeps on increasing with each passing year and, since the early eighties, there has been an alarming increase. The child obesity epidemic will pose a huge threat to the future of our children and their children, it is now the time to stop it on a globewide scale.
