How You Can Help Your Child Avoid Obesity

Help your children to stay a healthy weight

It’s well known that the UK is facing an obesity crisis that threatens the future of our NHS service (there are only so many heart attacks and other obesity-related health problems the NHS can afford to deal with) and the very lives of the next couple of generations.  Go to any children’s party, or any school, and it’s easy to see for yourself the scale of the problem.  Where once there might have been one or two overweight children in the school (who were usually the subject of much abuse), now every third child or thereabouts has a weight problem that is severe enough to impact on their health.

National strategies to improve children’s diets, like reducing fat and salt content in school meals and encouraging exercise and eating fresh fruit and vegetables (through the Change4Life or 5-a-day campaigns) help to a degree, but individuals need to take control of their weight.  In the case of children who are obese or overweight, the parents need to take charge.

But what can you do?  Of course, the bare fact is that if your child is overweight then it is because they are consuming more energy than they are burning off.  That might be because they are eating too much, or it might be because they are not exercising enough.  It’s a hard thing to raise with your child, though, and what you do and say rather depends on the age of your child.  Children can be very sensitive about their weight, and about any perceived criticism from their parents. 

You don’t necessarily need to weigh your child to know whether they are overweight or obese.  As weight gradually creeps on over time, it can be hard to notice a child gaining too much weight, so take a step back and look at them with fresh eyes.  Are they large around the waist?  Do they have excess fat around their hips, breasts (particularly boys)?  Do clothes said to be for their age range no longer fit?  Is your child being teased at school about their size?  Any of these factors can tell you if there’s a problem, and are better indicators than looking at a child’s Body Mass Index (since this can vary dramatically as a child goes through growth-spurts.

If your child is overweight, it is better to make a change to your whole family’s lifestyle than to say to the child that you’re putting them on a diet.  Don’t treat your child differently to the rest of the family – don’t give them their own ‘special’ food, they’ll feel scapegoated and resentful.  Instead, make a decision to change the family’s diet for a healthier, low-fat diet and couple it with some more active pursuits at weekends instead of sitting with screen-based entertainment.

If it’s possible, walk them to school.  Take them to a play gym after school.  Limit screen time to half an hour per day (including TV, consoles, mobile phones, laptops etc).  Go for a bike ride or walk, or go swimming if it’s wet out. 

Most schools are careful about what is served to the children, limiting choices like chips to once or twice a week.  If your child has a weight problem then even that may be excessive.  And if your child doesn’t like what’s being offered by the school then they won’t eat it, and will be famished by the time they get home and dive straight for the high-sugar, high-fat snacks for an energy boost.

You can tackle this in two ways.  First, if they really don’t want school dinners then send them with a packed lunch.    Include two portions of fruit/veg that they enjoy, choose healthy fillings for their sandwiches, and a healthy snack bar as a ‘pudding’.  Schools normally require children to take their packed lunch leftovers/wrappers home, so you can see how much they’ve eaten.  Beware, though, that children can be very sneaky when they want and may go to some lengths to dispose of evidence that they haven’t eaten what’s been provided.  The second thing you can do is take a healthy snack with you when you go to pick them up.  Something like a banana, or peanut butter on crackers will give them a boost and tide them over until teatime.

Other small changes you can make if your child is overweight is to switch to semi-skimmed milk from full-fat, and walk up stairs instead of taking the lift.  If your child doesn’t like a particular vegetable, don’t force it, just serve the veg they will eat instead.  Make sure you lead by example, and eat your five-a-day too!

Try not to link eating with rewards or comfort.  For example, don’t say ‘If you do your homework you can have some chocolate’ or ‘oh dear, have some cake to make it feel better’. 

Finally, don’t force your child to clear their plate.  If you’re going to let them have a dessert, then if they’ve had a good portion of their main course then let them move on if they want.  At least then they won’t have the extra calories from the main course too.  And if your child only ever eats the icing off buns, for goodness’ sake don’t force them to eat the bun before they eat the icing: they won’t stop eating the bun until it’s gone so they can have the icing and won’t learn to stop eating when they’re full.  Your job is to teach them the skill of knowing when they’re hungry, how much they should eat, and when to stop.