My grandchildren are here for what might be an extended visit. The youngest is just 7, a girl, and she’s got a serious weight problem. I don’t think I weighed as much as she does now until I was well into the 6th grade. And although at 4-1/2 feet, she’s already nearly as tall as I was then, she’s still very clearly extremely overweight.
We’ve been worried about her situation for a long time. But her parents are addicted to fast food, so there wasn’t much we could do or say. We’re not. And I’m hoping that alone will make a big difference to her health if she’s here for a while.
Anyway, I want to help her if I can. So this morning I looked up articles about obesity and children. And I found some interesting sites: [more]
Kid’s Health (pages for Parents, Kids and Teens) - I found a page called Is Dieting OK for Kids? Where they say that kids don’t really need to “diet” in the sense of eating fewer calories than they burn. That getting a nutritious diet is the key.
Medem Medical Library, mentions the possibility of formal diet programs for children. But, they say that it should be done carefully, under a doctor’s supervision.
Medline Plus - An excellent bibliography of resources on Childhood Obesity.
Basically, everyone recommends that a child this age (7) not be put on a formal diet. They say that if the child eats just the calories she’s using for energy that she’ll eventually grow into her weight (my, could she grow any taller?). They all say that the entire family should participate in a healthy-diet and exercise program — together. Which works perfectly for us. Because these are the changes we were making for ourselves, anyway.
I guess I’d better get dressed for my walk . . .
Thanks for the links. I have the same problem with my granddaughter. Her father has no sense at all when it comes to food. I tried to give him a chart as to what constituted a “serving” for a toddler and he paid NO attention to it. He buys every kind of junk in the book, has no sense at all when it comes to things like salad dressing. She is encouraged to eat salads, but drowns them in high calorie dressing that he bought for her.
It breaks my heart to hear a 7 year old talking about being on a diet !
Long story short, she is about half again the weight she should be. And she’s one of the big reasons I’m working on getting my weight down. We need to talk about this situation here a lot more.
Hi catdog — I think my concern over my granddaughter has been one of my inspirations too.
I’ve noticed this weekend that she doesn’t eat too much. She eats what she’s served (reasonable portions) and doesn’t ask for more or for snacks in between.
So, either her behavior and habits are very different when she’s at home. Or it’s the almost regular fast-food meals that are pushing her over the top.
She even went for my walk with me (she begged to go) — but I don’t think that either of her parents exercise regularly.
It is comforting to know that children can grow into their weight if we can stop the gain…
I added a category called “Obesity and children” and I’ll post more to it as I learn.