How to Control & Prevent Obesity in Children

Obesity in Children

What Parents should do?

Children learn very quickly from their parents. So parents can be the most important role models for children. Parents should create an active and healthy eating environment at home.

1. Limit the amount of TV watching. Only 2 hours are recommenced for a child to watch TV each day. Two recent studies reported in the Journal of Pediatrics (2005) reported that every extra hour of weekend TV at age 5 increases by 7% the chances of being obese at age 30. Also 11 year old girls who watch TV more than 2 hours in a day are more than twice as likely to be overweight as girls who watched less.
2. Involve children in household activities like vacuuming, spreading of washed clothes on clothe lines for drying, washing the car, gardening or mowing the lawn.
3. Entire family should participate in regular physical activities like walking, jogging or bicycling.
4. Encourage your child to participate in at least one of such activities as tennis, gymnastics, swimming, Volleyball, etc.
5. Implement the same healthy diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and grains) for your entire family.
6. Eat meals together at the dinner table at regular times. Do not watch TV while eating.
7. All should eat healthy nutritious food (fruits, vegetables and grains). Avoid foods that are high in calories, fat or sugar. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "51 percent of children and adolescents eat less than one serving a day of fruit, and 29 percent eat less than one serving a day of vegetables that are not fried."
8. Children who eat a low glycemic index (GI) breakfast shows improved memory and attention. Good low-GI breakfast foods include muesli with low fat milk, fruits, yogurt, wholegrain toast. Glycemic index food list.
9. Keep the serving portions or size small.
10. Limit fast foods (junk food) to no more than once per week.
    

    The Worse Healthy Foods

    Many foods marketed for children are often advertised as healthy. But some are worse than junk food because of their sugar and saturated fat content,” according to Christine Haigh of Children’s Food Campaign joint-coordinatorand reported by the Daily Express (2009). The worse healthy foods, according to this report, are Cow & Gate''s Baby Balance Bear Biscuits, Farley''s Original Rusks and Heinz Toddler Mini Cheese Biscuits.

11. As a parent you must see that you do not send your child to parties that are hosted at junk foods restaurants. Now a days it has become a fashion to arrange kids birthday parties at McDonalds, Bowling clubs, Chukky Cheezes, and similar places. If you host a party at such places, you should check the menu. These places normally have playing rooms for kids with swings, balloons and other colorful things to attract the children.
12. Have you ever thought about the menu at a sleep over party. Normally a cheese pizza and coke along with candies are served for dinner at these parties. This is not a healthy menu. As a parent, you should serve healthy foods in sleep over parties. The same menu is served in parties hosted at Bowling clubs and similar places. By sending your children to such parties and arranging such parties, you are spoiling your child's health.

Responsibility of Schools

Schools can play a major role in prevention of obesity. Schools should offer children to participate in physical activities. They should teach importance of healthy eating and physical activities in their courses.

1. School Principles, Headmasters and Administrators should ensure that the school canteen do not sell junk foods like soft drinks, potato chips, cheese pizzas, salami, donuts, full fat ice creams, etc. School canteens should be banned to keep and sale these junk foods.
2. Each school should have a compulsory physical training and games period where the children should actively participate. Even their performance report should hilight the child's interest and ability in such activities. In India, this is used to be the practice in all schools.
3. Each school should have a compulsory subject on nutrition and healthy foods at all levels.

Responsibility of Government

1. The government of all countries should ban on showing Ads on TVs for junk food products and unhealthy fast foods, especially during children programs. You must have noticed that most of the food advertisements on TV target children. They want to sell to children, because it will continue their sales as they grow.
   The Government should give some incentives to the companies showing Ads for healthy foods.
2. Educate parents and children through TV programs, awareness programs, incentives, etc.
3. Direct schools not to sell unhealthy foods like soft drinks (a glass of soft drink contains 10 or even more teaspoon of sugar), potato chips, pizzas, donuts, etc.
4. Direct schools to include courses on nutrition and healthy foods at all levels.

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