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Child Weight Loss
With childhood obesity rates skyrocketing, more
and more parents are looking for child weight loss information. Read
on to learn more about child weight loss and how to determine if
your child should lose weight.
Diet and Nutrition: Does My
Child Need to Lose Weight
The roles of diet and nutrition in kids have
become increasingly popular subjects in the last few years, with
good reason. Child obesity is running rampant throughout the Western
World and shows no signs of letting up.
Still, how does a parent know when it’s time to “put their child on
a diet”?
The first thing a concerned parent should do is talk to their
child’s doctor. What your physician will do is measure your child’s
height and weight and compare them to other children their age.
Next, they’ll use those numbers to come up with a body mass index,
or BMI, which they will again compare with other children their age.
If a child’s BMI is higher than 85% of the other boys or girls their
age, then that child is considered to be at risk for being
overweight. A BMI over the 95th percentile means that the child is
overweight.
Losing weight is not always the answer, believe it or not. As
pediatricians, we will often tell parents that we don’t want kids to
lose weight, but that we would rather see them not gain any more
weight for a while, so their height can catch up to their weight.
Using diets are also something not typically recommended by most
pediatricians. A diet usually has a beginning and an end. Instead of
the latest fad, we would rather see children make adjustments to
their lifestyle that will last a long, long time.
Your doctor should be able to provide you with some information, but
you will probably have to learn more than what they will be able to
explain to you in a short office visit.
Start educating yourself about healthy eating habits, and how to
teach them to your children.
Learn how to read labels and make better choices when you go
shopping.
Make sure that your doctor clears your child to start an exercise
program, and integrate that with your nutrition plans.
Study the reasons why kids overeat and take steps to prevent that
from happening.
Put everything that you learn into a comprehensive plan and check
back with your physician from time to time to make sure you’re on
the right track.
Michael P. Scaccia, MD, FAAP is a physician, author, speaker, and
child health expert whose goal is to help families live healthier
and more satisfying lives. For more information, visit http://www.ChildNutritionGuide.com
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