While not every obese kid becomes an obese adult, the older your kid is, the more likely that fatness will carry over.
It’s not just fatness. Being overweight means pediatric (childhood) high blood pressure, type II diabetes, heart disease, joint disease, self-esteem problems and of course incessant teasing and torturing at school and elsewhere.
Just for being overweight.
Many doctors do not recommend weight loss as a goal for obese kids. Parents and kids should let growth catch up with weight, and keep weight steady.
But it’s clear that not recommending weight loss for overweight kids is a doomed strategy.
Dieting is not the answer. Dieting does not work for adults. There is no reason it should work for kids.
Instead, set goals for activities, and reward them. To have water instead of soda. To spend one hour on TV or the PC instead of 2 hours daily.
Some parents do this with games: you choose the pepper in the store so when we’re home, you’ll remember, and then eat it.
Or, can you find the word “whole” on the first line of the bread package? No? We’ll find a better bread next time.
Believing in healthy eating and healthy weight is more than faith. It’s practice, practice, practice, and model, model, model.
