When it comes to helping an overweight or obese child slim down, blow up parents routinely, Pediatric obesity experts say. Some resort to nag or duress, others the child on a restricted diet, and still others give sweeping prohibition against foods containing sugar or fat — tactics which, at best, ineffective and, in the worst case, damage.
Tweet imagegraphic: although a third of the children overweight or obese, studies have shown that up to 90 percent of parents think their children is fine.Public attention to the problem of overweight increased — which affects a third of Americans younger than 18 — has more parents are made aware of the problem but has left them unsure of what to do. They must grab early, even in the preschool years, or keeping silence and practice a form of benign neglect, in the hope that the baby fat will melt away as a child grows? At the same time, many parents fight their own weight problems or hang-ups.
A Northern Virginia mother, who asked that her name be omitted because she wanted to protect the privacy of her daughter, said she found herself at a loss when its perenially chubby child visible heavier than her high school classmates grew. "I didn't want to say the wrong things and make her self-conscious, because she seemed not bothered by it. But I was definitely concerned this might be a problem, particularly in high school, "said the mother.
"It is not a simple place for parents to be," said Eleanor Mackey, a clinical psychologist who are affiliated with the paediatric obesity clinic at the children's National Medical Center in the District.
While some children are overweight slim down when they grow up, decreases the chance with age. An obese toddler has a 30 percent chance of adult obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while an obese teenager has a 70 percent chance — 80 percent if one parent is obesity.
The following are recommendations by pediatric obesity experts for parents concerned about what — and what not to do.
The basis for obesity can be implemented as soon as children's shoes, said pediatrician Nazareth Illit Mirza, who children's Hospital of the obesity clinic.
Many parents, she said, accidentally overfeeding infants, giving them six to eight ounces of milk formula or breast at a time, instead of the recommended three to four ounces. Others feed every time a child if the child cries — although crying can be separate from hunger — or push food even after the baby has signaled that he or she has enough.
"People like fast-growing babies and consider a chubby baby as a healthy baby, but what they don't realize is that they are compelling congenital metabolic cues," Mirza said. Most babies and children under the age of 4 or so know instinctively how much they need to eat. And to insist that children of all ages everything on their plate finish can lead to overeating, as ordinary exaggerated large parts can.
Pediatrician Herschel Lessin, who in Poughkeepsie, NY practices, said that many parents abuse food as a reward or bribe. "I have parents that their children fast food buy five or six times a week," said Lessin.
Adults, he said, general perceptions of children weight have skewed. "Parents worry too much about a skinny child and far too little about a fat kid," observed Lessin.
Don't focus on the scale
Too many parents zero on the number on the scale — or proclaim that they want their child to lose a certain number of pounds — when they need to be focused on general health.
"We are really stressing the parents that the most important thing is to keep the focus on the health of their child, not their weight," said Mackey. "The last thing we want is for parents to push weight dissatisfaction at children and have children feel bad about the way they look." For a young child, can these emotions, especially if combined with parental disapproval or disappointment, be overwhelming.
Mackey said researchers have discovered that focuses specifically on weight loss rarely works for children and may lead to a vicious circle in which the troubled children until a reliable source of comfort turn: food.
Instead, she advises parents to say, "I love you, and you have a body and a brain in this life, and I want you to take care of yourself," and then discuss ways to become healthier, including a better diet.
Patronize a child can cause lasting harm. Mirza recalls the slim mother who proclaimed, for her 5-year-old daughter, "she is so obese." The little girl burst into tears, complaining that she was fat and ugly. "They had been hammering on her home," said Mirza.
Talking about the weight of a child for the child "may be a on-focus on what the number means and it looks," said Washington nutritionist Elizabeth Davenport.
Davenport warns that while the parents should be aware of a healthy weight, they should not overreact. Before a growth spurt or puberty, many children and preteens put extra pounds that come out as they mature. "It ends up night out," she said.
Forget special diets
Obesity experts see this often: an overweight child is put on a diet, while the rest of the family eats as it always did and high-calorie foods in the House for thinner remains. family members Parents in such families sometimes protest that a skinny brother or sister not be penalized should "" by chips or cookies are rejected or by nonfat milk drink, said Mirza.
But healthy eating is good for everyone, experts say, and should not be considered criminal.
"If it is not adopted by the family, it is not to work," said Baltimore area pediatrician Daniel Levy, who founded the obesity task force of the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "You can't ask a child to do something if you are not prepared to do it yourself."
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