1. Give kids healthy food options. Don’t give them choices about the healthy foods.
2. If they turn down what you’ve offered, they will not starve. That is what there is to eat.
3. Use the Rule of 10: Try a new food 10 times before they decide they don’t like it. Don’t force them to try it: just offer it, as if it were a treat.
4. N.B. : the Rule of 10 applies over a year!
5. Make healthy changes too, so your kid does not feel alone, persecuted, paid attention to for all the wrong reasons.
6. Don’t give your overweight kid “special foods”! It makes them feel alone, persecuted, paid attention to for all the wrong reasons.
7. One hour per day, max, of computer, TV, video games (except DDR and Wii Fit).
8. TVs do not belong in kids rooms. May be hard to stomach, but do you really want them to be active with you, or with other kids, or not?
9. Make it a family affair. Tell your kids “Our family is eating like this now”. And then follow through. Actually model the right behavior: don’t eat ice cream late at night, make sure you eat breakfast, buy fruits and vegetables at the store, maybe even plant a backyard garden. They’re coming back.
10. Never blame an overweight kid for being overweight. It doesn’t help them.

Do check out Body Mass Index for Kids, and your own too.

And, enjoy!