Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities!

Today, I need you to think as adults what has happened to those children who are obese or over weight  and be honest and see if you would like to have to walk a life time in their shoe.

First, we need to identify the obese child:

Any child between the age of two and twelve who has more weight in fat than other children their age group. What I mean is if more than 20% of their weight is fat, they fall under the overweight group, however,once that percent increases to 30% they have now entered the obese stage.

Where does the child carry the excess fat?

Because children have different bone size, height and body shape, some can carry the fat well and is mislead in thinking they are normal and not over weight or obese.

However, once there is too much body fat, there will be certain things that will affect each child and we need to pay attention to our children and recognizing these problems ahead of time.

Obesity in children is seen at different levels of a child¹s life, we see those who grow with it from a young child, some begin to develop it between the ages of seven to ten years of age but one thing is certain, all will have signs before the age of (13).

The reasons some children have problems with obesity are:

Heredity - if obesity runs on one side of the family, the child might develop this disease as well, however if it run on both side of the family, the chances of the child becoming obese is greater.

Slow Metabolism - children who are born with a slower metabolism, will gain weight easy and have difficulty maintaining normal body weight.

Lack of Activities- Most children who are obese, tend to avoid staying fit, not because they are lazy, but some children have problem because of what may be happening in their body which causes them not to be able to work out as much and can only do certain type of sports or exercise.

Mental  attitude - Of all the reason for a child¹s struggle with obesity, the mental attitude of the child plays the biggest role in any successful program,once the child believe that they are destine to be big and come to accept obesity as being normal, we as a community are in trouble.

Poor Eating Habits - What the child eats plays a big factor on wheather they will continue to gain weight or not, that is why they need to be educated in making the correct choices as it applies to food, juices and snacks daily.

Can children really lose weight and grow as normal children?

Yes they can once the correct guidelines are set in place and they are encourage to make it a life time change.

What can happen if the child don¹t lose weight and continue to get bigger?

If the child continues to get bigger as they develop into adulthood, they may have several changes that will affect them:

* Diabetes type (1) or even type (2): and have to use medication, because of the excess fat in the body over a long term. Remember that diabetes is a slow but sure killer, and it causes several things to happen over the time it affects the body: Poor health, it destroy organ function, impairs circulation function which can cause you to loose your feet, can cause you to go blind and much more.

This is not a condition any adult would like to have to deal with, much less a child who does not understand the danger of Diabetes.

* Low self-esteem - the child will avoid crowd, chooses to stay home, become a couch potato, and show little or no interest in a weight loss program.

* Medical conditions that can also affect the child are: asthma, breathing problems, snoring, tired easy, high blood pressure, fatigue, low energy, just to name a few.

Eating Right: the secret to getting any child who is obese to lose weight takes planning, and because each child is different having a program in place is essential, once we begin working with the child, we encourage then by showing and motivation them how to make it happen for life, then success will begin.

Never have your child to skip meals: always begin the day with breakfast before eight am daily.

Have several snack all day long: make sure you get to know which snack is best for your child to eat and when.

Drink  more water: having more liquids will assist in your child in loosing weight, once their body is not retaining fluids.

Get energy fruits into meals daily.

Get them on antioxidants to improve health, cell growth and organ function.

Choose whole grain foods (examples oatmeal, wheat bread, bran, and low fat foods).

To build strong bones serve low fat or fat free milk or other dairy products several times a week.

Get more vegetables on the plate (mix your vegetables with different colors)

Eat lean protein or low fat meat (turkey breast and lots of fish or dried beans or peas), avoid chicken for now.

Eat smaller portion size, don¹t encourage your child to over eat or to eat when they are already full.

Avoid eating heavy food at night for health and longevity.

Eating out: When your child have to eat out, select those place with more healthy choices and less super size foods choices.

 Exercise:

* Become more active as a family by having fun together to show your child that exercising can be fun.

* Set aside sometime as activity time ( riding bike, walking, jogging, skating, gardening or swimming.)

* Make the next birthday party or other celebration event centered on physical activity - have a dancing contest, a  bowling or skating party, a beach or park party with dancing and games that will allow them to all be active.

* Give gifts to encourage physical activity, example: Nintendo Wii sports or fitness games, activity games or sporting equipment.

Women With Focus Inc 501c3 is committed to assisting parents with children who are obese find the ways and direction needed to win this war on childhood obesity before it become too late for them.

Register your child in one of our program in your location today and see the changes begin!

Janice Jay Mathurin  

Certified Nutritional Consultant International

Call: 340-626-8188 or 340-643-0426 or 340-692-2824.

Email: www.womenwithfocus@yahoo.com

We are here to "serve".