Overweight Kids

We all know that obesity in children is growing.  You can see it everywhere you go.

Over the summer my wifes sister and her kids came to Vancouver to visit us.  We went to the PNE, to several parks, shopping centers and even boating.  We saw lots of kids that were overweight.  Some of their parents were also overweight but others were not, or you had one parent that was overweight.

I recently ran accross an interesting website (http://docgerrytan.com/2006/08/02/a-trick-for-children-to-lose-weight/) that had a write up about a program called “Honey We’re Killing the Kids”.  The program uses state-of-the-art computer imaging that shows parents and kids what they will look like at 40 if they don’t start making lifestyle changes now.  I thought it was quite intriguing.

I remember being told by my family doctor all those years ago that I would weigh xxx lbs if my we (parents and I) don’t do something now.  I scoffed at the time.  Perhaps if I had been shown pictures, I may have made changes earlier in life?

Here is the image from the website indicated above:

Wow.  Pretty scary?

Is it over the top?  Do we really want to scare kids into “submission”?  I know we need to do something, but which approach is the right one?

What do you do to get your kids active?

Recently we found that we’re letting our kid watch too much TV.  The TV just happened to be the ideal babysitter for when we’re trying to get stuff done around the house.

Now we get him involved.

Here’s a few things that we’ve done:

- after dinner, he has to walk around the house.  Rather than make him walk, we have him count to 100.  Each day we increase that by 10 or 20.  Not only is this helping him get a handle on counting (which he is learning through his montessori school) but it is encouraging him to stay active.

- his montessori school now regularly discusses health and not healthy foods.  Items like pizza, chocolate, donuts and soda pop have been added to this list.  Amazingly his desire for these foods has also dropped.  When he sees us with something that isn’t healthy, he will pipe up immediately “Dad/Mom — that’s not healthy!  My teacher said…”.  He keeps us on our toes also!

- bought him a RC car.  He loves it!  Since he can not use it inside, he has to go outside.  We spend maybe 30 minutes to an hour outside whenever possible.  We also bought an extra battery to keep him (and the car) going for up to 1 hour.

- we encourage him to ride his bicycle on days he can’t use the RC car.  He loves it! 

- we’ve enrolled him into swimming lessons.  He can’t get enought of being in the water.  We supplement this by taking him for more “training” (and FUN TIME) on the weekends.  It’s his special treat.  Not only does he get to practice what he has learned but it further encourages him.

- we turned on the TV in the house.  Yes, yes, yes — I know I just contradicted myself.  But we’ll turn it on during non-prime time hours and usually leave it on soccer or some other sport.  As a result, this year he’s grown fond of hit ball (baseball) and hit ball (golf) and will watch soccer as well.  I’ve bought him a kid sized putter, and when the weather gets better will take him out to the park to play a bit. 

Really it is up to the parents to do what they can to help their kids get into shape and eat well.  As well, if the schools and other public (or private) educational institutions can get involved (like my sons montessori has) it helps further the goal of helping children eat and live better.  Lets face it — kids are in school for the bulk of the day, if they get the right message from school and as parents if we can supplement what they’ve learned and provide encouragement then we are well on our way to help kids have a healthy life!

Do you have any suggestions for our readers, or things that you’ve done in your family to help kids get moving?  Please share them here!

Here is to your health,

Regards,

Mohamed

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