How to deal with obesity in your child?

Fight effectively obesity in your child 

More and more children are weighing too much. Is it the effect of the fast food, computer games and cola era? What can obesity end in children? How to fight it?

What is the cause of obesity in children?

The primary cause of obesity is a poor diet and low physical activity of the child. One should pay attention to the diet of the child from the earliest years. Parents teach their children bad eating habits from an early age. Exemptions from physical education classes are also a nail to the coffin. In addition, some people have specific genetic conditions, which makes them more susceptible to weight gain than others.

What is causing more and more children to have obesity problems?

Instead of having a second breakfast at school, children eat sweets and cola, and they do not participate in physical education classes on a mass scale. Instead of playing football with friends, they prefer to play on a computer.

What are the risks of obesity?

Children with overweight and obesity are more susceptible to diabetes and hypertension. If the child is obese from an early age, diseases related to osteoarthritis can also occur. People who are overweight are also at greater risk of heart attack.

How to fight obesity?

From the very beginning you should pay attention to your child's diet. Do not salt dishes strongly or prepare them spicy. Remember that from an early age, the child is made taste and must not get used to a large amount of salt from a young age. You should also pay attention to the physical activity of children. Do not exempt them from physical education for trivial reasons and, if possible, take care of their condition also after school.

What parental mistakes lead the child to obesity?

In the process of raising children, sweets often play the role of rewards for good behaviour. This is a mistake. Sweets should be treated as a normal part of the diet and administered to the child from time to time. It is also important to limit the consumption of carbonated drinks and ready meals, not to mention fast food, which is not one of the healthiest. We should also remember to develop good eating habits in children. Kids eat what we give them, because they are not able to prepare anything on their own. When a child has a bad diet from a very young age, it will be more difficult for him/her to "switch" later, when it has a developed taste.

Are jars with ready-made dishes for the youngest children a good solution?

Ready-made food from proven companies for the youngest children is not a threat. At the beginning it is a good solution, but let's remember that with time we expand this diet. It is here that we must be careful not to teach the child bad habits. As we serve tea, it is unsweetened. Instead of juice - non-carbonated mineral water.

Where should I seek help if my child weighs too much?

In every larger city there are specialist advice centres that deal with the problem of obesity. By going there, doctors individually determine how to proceed to get rid of the problem. There is currently no golden recipe for treating obesity.

What to avoid so that the problem of obesity does not affect our child?

This cannot be generalized in such a way. Each case is different. Children have different genetic conditions, different eating habits. It is not easy to determine what can and cannot be avoided. This is an individual case for each child.

Where is the boundary between overweight and obesity?

While it is a simple matter for adults, because the BMI scale clearly shows it, it is not so easy for children to find the border. For adults, the body weight divided by the height to square is taken into account. If BMI is greater than 30, then we are talking about obesity. In children, the gender and age of the child are also taken into account.

What is the BMI scale?

BMI is the simplest way to put it, the body mass index measured by dividing the body weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres. With BMI, we can quickly check whether we are in the optimal weight for our growth, underweight or obesity.

Can childhood obesity be cured?

The treatment of obesity is fundamentally different from the treatment of many other diseases. It is long-term and depends on the patient's commitment and strong will. The basic elements include a change in diet, in which, above all, there must be plenty of vegetables at each meal. Choose mainly whole-grain products such as groats, :wholemeal bread, oatmeal, and dairy products with a fat content of up to 2%. 

A daily portion of fruit, for example, should be included as a healthy snack and it is essential to enrich the diet with fish twice a week. It is also important that our children eat regular and balanced meals and almost completely eliminate sweets, crisps, sugary drinks and other high-calorie products. 

It is also essential to introduce daily exercise the discipline should depend on our child's preferences, so that he or she does not get discouraged early on in the journey. In the process of losing weight, it is a good idea to keep a diary to keep track of progress and to control calorie intake. But don't try to do everything at once: weight loss should be gradual but systematic.

Obviously, a fundamental change in lifestyle, i.e. the introduction of a rational diet and physical activity, is essential for children and young people affected by overweight or obesity. However, according to the principle that prevention is better than cure, it is worth thinking about nationwide educational activities to change social awareness of the benefits of a rational diet and active lifestyle. It is the task of each of us parents, teachers and doctors to remember that obesity is one of the main factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, among others.