Today I’m going to talk about a topic that is very near and
dear to my heart: childhood
obesity. Actually, I like the
preventative term of childhood nutrition better. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock,
you’ve heard all sorts of reports on the matter. I’m going to be addressing some reasons why
our children are getting bigger and how to reverse this or prevent this from
happening to your child.
Kids have a special place in my heart. I grew up babysitting. I spent some of my high school years coaching/mentoring
elementary school kids. When I was just
a child, I would line my stuffed animals up against a wall and sit in front of
them “reading” a story and took special care panning the book in the appropriate
way so each toy would have their chance to see the pictures. My family had a portable whiteboard that I
would use to teach my friends how to borrow in subtraction when I was in second
grade. Because of this, it wasn’t a
shocker when I decided at a young age that if my singing career didn’t work
out, I would become a teacher. It was on
my path to becoming a teacher that sparked my interest in children with weight
problems.
I can see it in my mind like it was yesterday even though it
was probably nine years ago. I was
working as a preschool teacher and it was summertime which meant we also had
school-age children to watch over as well.
I loved the summers because my boss would give me free reign of learning
activities to do with these kids. Each
day had a different fun activity and this particular even occurred on Water
Day. I was sitting in the shade with my
friend and co-worker, Andy, while the older kids had their turn playing on the
inflatable water slide. Seeing all those
kids lined up and waiting for their turn, I noticed something. Out of the twenty kids we had waiting in line
in their swimsuits, five of them were overweight. That means that one out of four of those kids
were most likely considered obese! Now
Andy was young and a little bit of an ass so his remarks about it were not
worth repeating, but these kids broke my heart.
Beginning on that hot, summer day I started to become more aware of
children’s nutrition and physical activity habits.
When I went back to college to finish my education degree,
one of my final grades in my favorite class (Physical Education in the
Elementary School) was to come up with a unit plan involving physical education
since so many schools are cutting back on these programs. I got special permission to come up with an
after school program, something I had been toying around with in the back of my
mind. I had so much fun coming up with
activities for this program that included a nutritional aspect where kids could
make up their own after school snacks, a physical activity which contained a
treasure hunt where kids would have been ALLOWED to run through the school
(something generally forbidden so it would be fun for them), and a character
building activity like anti-bullying or whatever. I designed this program with not only
intervention in mind, but prevention. I
whole-heartedly believe that the more aware the kids and the *ahem*parents are,
the better we can combat this sad epidemic.
Food
A big part of this ordeal is pre-packaged food. I get it, it’s easy. When a kid wants a snack, it’s convenient to
hand them chips or fruit snacks. It is the parents’ responsibility to know what is going into your child’s mouth. When you look at labels, how many ingredients
are on the list that you can’t even pronounce?
That’s usually a bad sign. Food
coloring has not been tested enough to see if it has any lasting effects. Almost every packaged food has high fructose
corn syrup which is a big no-no. Don’t be
fooled by the commercials saying that it’s okay because it comes from
corn. It’s processed so much that it has
turned into a form of sugar that your body does not know how to handle. There’s an uptick in cancer in the last
twenty years and many professionals say that our lack of wholesome foods is a
big part of it. Would you look at the
foods you give your children differently if you knew they caused cancer among
other things? Maybe this is taking it
too far, but you wouldn’t willingly hand your children cigarettes, would
you? Why do we view processed food so
differently?
Drinks
It’s understandable
that you as a parent get sick of drinking nothing but water and milk so you
introduce juices and soda to your kids.
The thing is, if your child has never had whatever sweet drink you’re
giving them, they wouldn’t want it. Now
it is not realistic to say “my child will never drink juice or soda” because we
all know that there are these people called relatives. Haha! 100%
fruit juices are not as bad as soda (obviously), but they are LOADED with sugar
which means they are loaded with calories.
It’s kind of a nutritional rule of thumb for adults to not drink their
calories, why would it be any different for kids?
Exercise (or lack
thereof)
I grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money. When we were being frugal, cable tv just wasn’t
going to happen. I spent a majority of
my childhood with only CBS. That
resulted in a lot of outside play. I was
fortunate enough to have a great dad who took me on bike rides, shot hoops with
me, or took me to target practice with a .22 and .38. These days, every
Christmas list is more likely to be asking for a Wii or Xbox rather than a new
soccer ball. Because of the wonderful
invention of DVR, we can sit for hours on end and watch a whole series of a
show. And yes, I’m calling the kettle
black on this one. Ask my husband about
my Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Dawson’s Creek, and Vampire Diaries addictions. We are so used to being visually stimulated
at all times that most SUVs and mini vans come with DVD players. Does it worry anyone else that most children
can’t sit in a vehicle and entertain themselves for a ride across town? And we wonder why more and more children are
being diagnosed with ADHD…
A Solution?
Just like children need to be taught their ABCs, teach them
early on about food. Introduce a variety
of fruits and veggies. Teach them that
cookies, cake, and ice cream are special occasion foods. Same goes for soda if they happen to get a
taste for it. Remember that you are the
parent and you want what’s best for your child in the long run. If they cry and scream because they want
something, you are doing nothing but teaching your child unfavorable habits by
giving in. Get outside with your
kids. Teach them that there is a whole
big, interesting world out there. Make
television and video games a reward instead of a necessity. Most importantly, stick to the rules
boundaries that you give.
Who Am I, right?
Please know that I write these blogs for myself as much as
anyone else who chooses to read it. I am
not a perfect parent and won’t ever be a perfect parent. That’s just not possible in any
situation. I do want to say that as a
teacher, I’ve learned a lot of parenting do’s and don’ts. Right now all my teacher friends are nodding
their head in agreeance. I’ve learned a
lot from my husband who is a pediatrician.
I have also done a lot of nutritional research. Do I know quite a bit about this stuff? For the most part. Do I follow everything I’ve learned to a
T? No way! One look at me and you could see that. I’m human.
BUT I’m a human who wants to do anything I can to better my life, my
family’s life, and the lives of others.
Here are some
interesting facts on these subjects:
About drinks…
If you give your kids endless amounts of fruit snacks, this
is for you…
Obesity Facts…
Are chicken nuggets actually bad?
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