Obesity is an epidemic that affects all social levels and age groups, including children. Obesity can come from serious health complications, such as stroke or heart attack, diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Obesity affects on a larger scale because weight-related health problems can rack up sky-high bills.
It is worrisome that today the rate of childhood obesity continues to rise worldwide. Approximately 43 million preschool-age children worldwide in 2010 were overweight or obese. In addition to this, children’s life experiences such as getting too little sleep, not breastfeeding, and watching too much television can lead to an increased risk of obesity later in life. For that reason, early child care providers must play a role in preventing the obesity epidemic.
Early childhood is a crucial period for the prevention of obesity. During this period, children establish taste preferences, learn to talk and walk, and enthusiastically imitate the healthy and unhealthy habits of those around them, particularly their caregivers. Although there are many factors that play a major role in causing childhood obesity, including genetics, there are ways you can help improve this situation.
1. Avoid large portions often served in restaurants, as they are a major contributor to childhood obesity. Provide your children with adequate amounts of home-cooked meals, which are often healthier than restaurant meals, and avoid giving them sugary drinks. Instead, help your children consume more water or organic juices.
2. Teach your children to have a positive image of themselves. You should focus on the positive aspects of the child, not the negative. Children who have a poor self-image were found to be more likely to develop obesity.
3. Avoid rewarding children with candy. You need to find better ways to reward your children for good behavior. Several healthier ideas for doing so include taking them on a trip, to see their favorite movie, to see a sports team, or to buy a new book.
4. Encourage children to actively participate in various school and recreational activities. It is mandatory to start school activities early, including swimming, baseball, basketball or softball, if possible.
5. Limit the amount of time your children spend playing video games, watching TV, or surfing the Internet. An hour or less per day is enough to do all of these things. Allow your children’s spare time to be spent on healthier activities, such as helping with chores or playing outside and riding bikes with friends.
6. Support school feeding programs, so that your children can have healthier food options. For example, you can suggest that school administrators buy healthy vending machines that only carry water, healthy snacks, fruit juices, fresh fruits, and vegetables.
7. Develop healthy daily meals and snacks. It is important to make a wide variety of healthy foods available according to the Food Pyramid rule for young children.
8. Practice a healthy lifestyle. If you want to encourage your child to eat a healthy diet and stay active, you need to set the same example. Remember that children tend to learn all behaviors from their parents, including healthy ones.
After all, for most children, childhood obesity is the result of too many calories in food and too little physical activity. Since these habits develop in early childhood, attempts to prevent obesity in children must begin early. However, for most very young children, their focus is on maintaining their current weight, whereas toddlers can normally grow in height.