http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=112672
Associated Content
By Beth Callahan
Published January 09, 2007
Childhood obesity has become a large problem in the United States and not enough blame is put on the parents for their child being this way. Their are some cases that do not apply such as medical problems or children sneaking food. However, even the sneaking of food could be a result of bad parenting from earlier in life. As a parent, it is important to teach your child to eat healthy and responsibly. Here are some tips that you should follow so that you do not affect your child's eating habit negatively.Clean your plate- I am sure that most of us have heard this at the dinner table at least once when we were young. However, this is a bad practice to enforce. Children go through different stages depending on their ages. Unless you are noticing a huge drop in weight or your child is refusing to eat any food at all, then you should not be concerned. For the most part, the child will eat until they feel full. When you force a child to eat after feeling full, you are teaching them an eating habit that can stay with them all of their lives. Even if they do not become obese as a child, it could be a small part of why the develop obesity later on in life. This can also make eating time a power struggle which the child will learn that they can get back at you for something by not eating anything.Watch your mouth- As adults, we all have habits of saying things to ourselves or under our breath. Children are curious creatures and pick up on just about everything. Adults who over eat at meal time themselves tend to make comments at the table such as " I am stuffed but this is so good" and then keep eating, or " I am stuffed" and then order dessert anyway. While these comments are just made in conversation, children are picking up that you should still have dessert even when you are to full and that if something is good you should eat it all. You may think that I am over analyzing this, but children over analyze everything. Even if they do not subconsciously connect the two, it is something that is learned by habit. Such as you always folding the hand towel after your done using it simply because your mother always did. You do not consciously make that choice, it was learned by habit.Exercise- Make sure that your child gets a least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. You can even get them on an exercise regimen. Kids will take to anything easily. A lot of children seem to enjoy Yoga or Pilate's. You can also try a dance aerobics class, This is a great way to fight obesity or maintain a healthy weight for your child. This also teaches your child that exercise should be a part of their everyday life and that it is fun!I am not by any means placing all the blame on the parents. Some children just decide on their own that they love food and want to eat it constantly. However, these tips will greatly reduce your child's chances of having childhood obesity or learning eating habits that could result in obesity later in life. If there is no reasonable explanation as to why your child is gaining weight, you should check with their pedestrian immediately since this may be caused by a medical condition. Hopefully, your child should never become obese because putting on the weight is a lot easier than taking it off.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Sunday, April 1, 2007
British State May Take Obese Boy into Protective Custody
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/162078/british_state_may_take_obese_boy_into.html
Associated Content
By Mitzi Speranzella
Published February 26, 2007
An eight year old child could be taken away from his mother and put under protective custody in Britain, because he is morbidly obese. The mother of a 196-pound boy has defended her refusal to stop feeding him junk food.
Nicola McKeown is a single mom who says her son Connor McCreaddie refuses to eat any healthy foods. "He likes processed foods and if I try him with any salad, vegetables, fruit, he just refuses to eat it or spits it out," she said on BBC Radio on Monday. "When a child won't eat anything else, you've got to feed them what they like."
McKeown is facing a child protection conference with North Tyneside Council on Tuesday. This is the equivalent of a Child Protection Agency hearing in the US.
The last resort of the conference would be for social workers to put him into the care of the state, but McKeown is confident she can help her son lose weight. Connor has already lost 21 pounds following advice from health workers and a dietician starting in January.
A suggestion to put a lock on the refrigerator was firmly rejected by the 35 year old mother. "I wouldn't go that far," she said. "That's not the way to do it, starving your child."
"What's interesting for me, and everything I've read over the weekend about this issue, it's always been about diet; it's about what he (Connor) eats. There's no mention of exercise," he told the BBC.Former British Olympic runner Roger Black said.
"Many, many children in this country are growing up doing very, very little exercise and if you create a culture of young children not used to doing exercise on a daily basis then these problems do happen," Black noted. Black recently spent time in an inner city London school encouraging 12-year-olds to exercise and become more active. It is a program linked to the 2012 Olympics. He added,"The project I've just been involved with is not about creating Olympic medalists for 2012, it's about encouraging young people to do more exercise in school time. It absolutely should be compulsory that children do more exercise than our children are doing now, because it is staggering that some children in this country are doing less than an hour's exercise a week in school."
Colin Waine, the director of the National Obesity Forum in Nottingham, England, called Connor's lifestyle "extremely dangerous". He said that Conner is at a high risk of developing diabetes in his teens, and cardiovascular and nervous system problems in his 20s."
He's really at risk of dying by the time he's 30," Waine said.
Associated Content
By Mitzi Speranzella
Published February 26, 2007
An eight year old child could be taken away from his mother and put under protective custody in Britain, because he is morbidly obese. The mother of a 196-pound boy has defended her refusal to stop feeding him junk food.
Nicola McKeown is a single mom who says her son Connor McCreaddie refuses to eat any healthy foods. "He likes processed foods and if I try him with any salad, vegetables, fruit, he just refuses to eat it or spits it out," she said on BBC Radio on Monday. "When a child won't eat anything else, you've got to feed them what they like."
McKeown is facing a child protection conference with North Tyneside Council on Tuesday. This is the equivalent of a Child Protection Agency hearing in the US.
The last resort of the conference would be for social workers to put him into the care of the state, but McKeown is confident she can help her son lose weight. Connor has already lost 21 pounds following advice from health workers and a dietician starting in January.
A suggestion to put a lock on the refrigerator was firmly rejected by the 35 year old mother. "I wouldn't go that far," she said. "That's not the way to do it, starving your child."
"What's interesting for me, and everything I've read over the weekend about this issue, it's always been about diet; it's about what he (Connor) eats. There's no mention of exercise," he told the BBC.Former British Olympic runner Roger Black said.
"Many, many children in this country are growing up doing very, very little exercise and if you create a culture of young children not used to doing exercise on a daily basis then these problems do happen," Black noted. Black recently spent time in an inner city London school encouraging 12-year-olds to exercise and become more active. It is a program linked to the 2012 Olympics. He added,"The project I've just been involved with is not about creating Olympic medalists for 2012, it's about encouraging young people to do more exercise in school time. It absolutely should be compulsory that children do more exercise than our children are doing now, because it is staggering that some children in this country are doing less than an hour's exercise a week in school."
Colin Waine, the director of the National Obesity Forum in Nottingham, England, called Connor's lifestyle "extremely dangerous". He said that Conner is at a high risk of developing diabetes in his teens, and cardiovascular and nervous system problems in his 20s."
He's really at risk of dying by the time he's 30," Waine said.
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