Childhood obesity has continued to rise over the past several years in the United States. Obesity early in life can lead to both short-term and long-term negative health effects. Because of this, it’s important to seek treatment for obesity in kids early to prevent serious health risks from becoming a problem for your child.
As a parent, you play an essential role in childhood obesity prevention. This article goes over the ways you can help your child maintain a healthy weight.
Teach Healthy Eating Habits
One of the biggest weapons for kids’ weight loss is teaching your child healthy eating habits. Ensure your child knows the importance of eating lots of fruits and vegetables. You can build these healthy eating habits naturally by providing your child with many whole grains, fruits, and vegetables at every meal.
For protein, avoid giving your child fatty meats and red meats. Instead, choose from the following:
- Lean meats
- Fish
- Chicken breast
- Beans and lentils
When it comes to healthy snacks, offer low-fat dairy products such as yogurt and cheese. How to prevent childhood obesity is simple when you limit sugary drinks like soda and juice and approach sugary and fatty foods as occasional treats instead of staples in your child’s diet.
Limit Unhealthy Temptations
Along with developing healthy eating habits, it’s important to limit unhealthy temptations when it comes to treatment for obesity in kids. This is because even if your child knows they should be eating healthy food, allowing them the temptation of eating the bag of chips on the counter is not how to prevent childhood obesity.
Be active in childhood obesity prevention by reducing the risk of going for an unhealthy snack. One easy way to do this is by making only healthy options available to them. Hide unhealthy foods out of sight and out of reach to help your kid lose weight, and be sure to offer lots of healthy snacks.
Some healthy snack options include:
- A plate of carrots and broccoli
- A cup of blueberries and a banana
- Half a cup of low-fat yogurt
It’s important that your child feels like they have a lot of healthy snack options. Keeping these healthy snacks in visible places in the fridge and pantry instead of junk food can act as a good treatment for obesity in kids.
Limit Sedentary Time
Of course, your child needs quiet time for homework, reading, and resting. However, childhood obesity prevention requires that you limit how much time your child has to watch TV, play on their phone, or play video games. Sitting on the couch for eight hours a day is not how to prevent childhood obesity.
It’s best that you limit this sedentary time to no more than two hours each day. Instead of letting them lounge all day, you can help by encouraging them to find fun and active things to do either on their own or with family.
Make Sure Your Child Gets Enough Sleep
When your child doesn’t get enough sleep, they will not have the energy to be more active and will often have a bigger appetite for junk food. This is counterproductive to childhood obesity prevention and can undo any progress you have made with the treatment for obesity in kids that you and your pediatrician have been working on together.
How much sleep your child needs every night will depend on how old they are. The recommendations for sleep are:
- Infants: 12 to 16 hours
- Toddlers: 11 to 14 hours
- Kids aged 3-5: 10 to 13 hours
- Children aged 6-12: 9-12 hours
- Teenagers: 8-10 hours of sleep
To assist your kids weight loss, make sure they get the recommended amount of sleep each night. If your child is at an age where they need naps throughout the day, ensure that naps don’t get missed or cut short.
Help Your Child Stay Active
Another important aspect of knowing how to prevent childhood obesity is helping your child have an active lifestyle.
Along with being essential for maintaining a healthy weight, physical activity has several other health benefits that include:
- Increasing your child’s self-esteem
- Decreasing blood pressure
- Strengthening bones
- Reducing anxiety and stress
Being active is fun for most children, which makes this an easy habit for most parents to build with their children. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 need to stay active throughout most of the day, with very little sedentary time aside from naps. If your child is between 6 and 17, make sure they get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.
Incorporate physical activity into your child’s routine by encouraging them to participate in sports. Make sure to add muscle-strengthening activities like bodyweight exercises or climbing to your child’s routine. You can also let your child do physical activity at home by including aerobic activities like jumping rope and jumping jacks to get their heart rate up.
Be a Good Role Model
Encourage your children in their health journey by joining them with healthy lifestyle choices. Remember that your children will imitate the things they see you doing, and research has shown that parents who have a healthy approach to food and lifestyle tend to have children who adopt the same habits naturally. If your kids see you eating fast food and never exercising, they will question why you are implementing strict rules on them and their lifestyle while you’re not following the same rules.
Take your child grocery shopping with you and let them choose a few healthy snacks for the whole family to enjoy together. Encourage your child to be physically active by participating in exercise with them. If you take your child on a hike or a bike ride with you, exercise changes from being seen as a chore. Instead, it’s now seen as a fun family activity. Making changes with your child will help them feel in control and teach them that a healthy lifestyle is important to maintain during all stages of life.
Conclusion
Helping your child maintain a healthy weight is vital for ensuring a healthy childhood while avoiding the long-term health risks that often come with childhood obesity. Combating this childhood disease can often be as simple as helping your child incorporate healthy lifestyle changes into their daily routines. Teaching your kids how to eat well and stay active will help their bodies stay fit and set them up for a healthy lifestyle into adulthood.
Do you have more questions about treatment for obesity in kids? Our healthcare providers here at the Pediatric Endocrine Metabolic Center of Florida are knowledgeable and compassionate, and we are happy to be your partners in medicine when it comes to giving your child a healthy and happy life. Give us a call or request an appointment online today to discuss your child’s weight management.