Overweight Children

By Sunil Tanna

There should be no great difficulty in getting children down to normal weight. Most kids do not have the
 money to go into a store and come home with boxes of pastries, cases of beer and gallons of ice cream. 
You control what food is in house, and if there is no junk food in your house, and you don't use sweets 
as a reward, and don't keep nagging your child to eat, there should be no great difficulty.

It can be hard for parents to accept, but obesity in children is usually caused by parents’ behavior. 
The most common error is offering over and over again the child food that he doesn't need. 
Parents who claim that they have to buy junk food because their children "demand it" are simply deceiving 
themselves: What they are actually doing is using their child as an excuse to bring home junk food so that they can eat it too!

Some parents seem to be intimidated by their children and let them buy or eat anything they want. 
Quite often these parents don’t understand that it's perfectly okay for kids to squawk, complain, nag and 
even cry, holler and tell you hat they hate you. Kids act like that for all kinds of reasons, but the main purpose 
behind that whining and nagging is the desire to have the parent establish firm limits on the child’s behavior. 
Parents who have trouble accepting that, may wish to seek help from a counselor or psychologist.



All children need limits and discipline. They are integral parts of their development, and their children crave them. 
On the other hand, kids don’t need potato chips or bottles of soda. As a parent, you must learn to say no. 
If you have trouble doing that, think about how your daughter is going to feel about you when she's 17 years old and
weighs 150 pounds, all because you gave in to her infantile whining for sweets, which her high school psychology course
will probably have taught her was nothing more than a disguised request for discipline and love.

- Don't try to ingratiate yourself with your child by bringing home gallons of ice cream or boxes of snacks. 
There are better ways to express love.

- Don't urge the overweight child to take seconds or keep asking him if he's had enough to eat, just 
because your parents always did that to you.

- Don't tell the child that he can have ice cream or a snack if he's good.

- If your child doesn't feel like eating at all or only plays with his dinner, that’s okay: let his natural appetite 
control express itself.

You won’t of course be able to completely eliminate junk food from your children’s diets. 
Your kids will eat junk at their friends' houses, and they might buy their own candy bars using their pocket money. 
That’s okay, because they are very unlikely to get fat that way. It’s the food that the parents provide that is
the big issue.




Please note: This article was are NOT written by a doctor or other medical professional, and represents the personal opinions 
of the author only. Always consult your doctor before changing your diet, or beginning any exercise or fitness plan, etc.!
                                                  
HOME




First published at http://www.diet4women.com/article_overweight_children.php

More diet and weight loss information at Diet 4 Women