Child obesity is very high in the USA and most develop countries . This does not have to be your kids you can stop this by setting rules and healthy standards in your home also educating your child . They say once your train a child well he will not depart from those ways when he gets older . ( it also depends on other external factors that can affect his choices ) . The reason I decided to write this post because for my entire life I have always payed attention to my health and fitness and I can attribute this to the health education and rules passed down by my mother . On the other hand my smaller sister who is 25 constantly struggles with weight gain I attribute this to two things , one she was spoiled rotten was not given all those rules like me and my oldest sister and secondly she left our home at age 16 to study medicine where she learned a lot of unhealthy habits at her university. Her older sister and I had to followed a set of rules which we had led to healthy lifestyle we left home a little older than her with these life values which stayed with us . Here are some tips which I had to follow and a few a learnt and pass down to my kid.
- Use a whole family approach by getting everyone together parents and kids alike have a discussion about your plan to inculcate a healthy lifestyle in your home . Set out your goals for everyone and ask for full support . Goals can be places on the refrigerator .
- Get rid of unhealthy food in the home and shop for healthy one . Involve the children shopping this is the opportunity to teach them to purchase healthy choices learn to read labels .
- Increase their water intake and reduce daily juice and soft drinks intake ( my child do not any soft drink ). Children should learn that soft drinks are just bottled sugar but you must reduce them slowly from your kids diet if they are accustomed to drinking them .
- Pay attention to child portion size give him or her small portion and if he’s still hungry let them ask for more. You can use precise portion plates.
- Make room for treats if you don’t the kids will take them in large amounts when they are away from you so allow them to pick there treat but chose healthy ones .
- Early to bed encourage kids to sleep early they tend to eat more daily when they go to bed late.
- Reduce sedentary lifestyle which can lead to depression , diabetes , obesity and a bunch of other health problems.
Remove the television and gadgets from the kids room or find methods to control how and when they use them . Encourage them to use their devices in the living room where you can monitor them . Television in rooms encourage kids to sleep late which leads to overeating and little physical movement .
- Increase physical activity with outdoor games walking and jogging as a family . Enrolling your kids in extra curricular activities such as swimming dancing etc . Here some great games .
- Teach children to read food labels they should learn about calories , cholesterol ,pay attention to daily value percentage .Kids should learn to limit their cholesterol sodium , saturated fats and sugars.
- Increase whole grain foods and reduce refined foods read more about refined foods .
- Add more fiber to their diets list of high fiber
- Increase fruits and vegetables but limit their daily intake because you want to reduce sugar also look for fruit not high in sugar. Use fresh fruits and vegetables frozen ones are ok once they were packaged fresh.
- Involve them in the cooking allow them to make some of the choices they will be more inclined to eat what is served if they were part of the making.
- Add more healthy fats from fish ,avocados and other source
- Fast food should be bought once or twice a month and look for the healthiest ones. Eating out should be less regular .
- Eat together as a family this will allow you to better understand what changes you need to take and many other vital info about their diet . You will also be able to teach them to eat slowly this is important to controlling hunger.
- Milk is good for children but can be bad if used to often do look for low fat and low sugar milk the same for other dairy products.
- Make balance meal some meat , vegetables , some carbohydrate like brown rice ,some fiber this would keep them full longer than one food group.
- Discourage eating while watching Tv or using computer this can lead to overeating because their brain will not concentrate on their fullness.
- Don’t use punishment and reward with food can have a negative effect on child diet . Example if a child know his punishment would usually be go to bed hungry he will eat extra to feel full at night.
- Pay more attention to the amount of wheat your child eat just a few slice of cake or bread can spike your child blood sugar .
