Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Living Well

One of the leading health problems among America's children is weight. Although children have fewer weight-related health problems than adults, overweight children are at a high risk of becoming overweight adolescents and adults.

Overweight adults are at risk for a number of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer.

Children can become overweight for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons are genetic factors, lack of activity and unhealthy eating patterns. To determine whether your child is overweight it is important to talk to a health professional, such as your doctor. The doctor will consider your child's height, weight, age and growth patterns in order to determine if your child is overweight. Sometimes a child will grow into a normal weight. However, it is best to let your doctor decide this.

How can you help your child if he or she is overweight?

The most important factor is to be supportive! Encourage, accept and support your child by telling them that you love them and that they are okay whatever their weight may be. Then, by involving the whole family in healthier eating and physical activity practices, you can gradually change your child's activity and eating habits.

Plan family events that provide physical activities like walking, bicycling, dancing or swimming. When you do these things with your child and reduce the amount of time you and your family spend in front of the TV, you teach your child a healthy life style.

To help your child develop healthy eating practices, it is important that you don't place your child on a restrictive diet. Reducing what your child eats may be harmful to their health and interfere with their growth and development.

Instead, offer your child a wide variety of healthy foods from all of the food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid.

Most of the foods your child eats should come from the grain, vegetable and fruit groups. Foods from the dairy and meat groups provide important nutrients, but may be higher in calories. Make sure you offer lower-fat choices. The foods your child may enjoy the most like candy bars, sodas and cookies should be eaten only once in a while.

Finally, encourage your child to eat slowly, involve them in your grocery shopping and cooking, try not to use foods as a system of reward or punishment and discourage eating meals or snacks while watching TV. By helping children develop the right eating and activity habits, you will enable them to be confident, happy and healthy adults.

For more information on healthy eating for children, contact the Nevada County Extension office.