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Here's To A New Year!
If only kids came with instructions, we could be perfect
parents. Regrettably, there are no instructions and
therefore no perfect parents. We try to do our best
raising our families but the busyness of life gets in the
way. The problem rests in the fact that sometimes we
do not have enough information to make the best decisions. I
am a firm believer that "when you know better--you
can do better."
Resolutions for a Happy and Healthier New Year
When a baby is born, we are so excited. Counting
their fingers and toes, we ask the doctor if the baby is
healthy and, if we are lucky, the doctor says "yes." We
expect that this initial pronouncement of health means for
the next twenty-one years our child will be well. But
no one explains to us the important part that we must play,
and we receive little if any specific training for the most
important role of our lives. As parents, we consider just
two possibilities--sickness and health--the spectrum in between
is lost. We need to pay attention to the gray area.
A parent lovingly fulfills every basic need for an infant,
and as the infant grows, he or she learns to do these tasks
by mimicking the way of the parents. As mothers, when
babies cry from hunger we pick them up to comfort them, speak
soothingly to them, and feed them. It is an enjoyable
time between mother and child. But some babies come
to associate food as the comfort. Unless we expand
upon this coping mechanism, this baby is destined to a life
of emotional eating.
Choose an enjoyable activity that models for our children
how to cope with daily stress.
Try walking, biking, or dancing to deal with frustrations
instead and include your children in this activity. Children
copy what we do, not what we say.
The childhood obesity epidemic is a complex problem for
society, but truly as parents we are much more concerned
about what occurs within our own four walls. Many families
believe that their chunky child will outgrow their baby fat,
but it takes only a few extra pounds to weigh a child down. Then
the child does not feel well participating in activity so
they become less active and the pounds begin to pile up. Kids
are cute but they are cruel to each other. The
old saying of "sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never hurt me" was never farther from
the truth. The words are forever etched in our children's
brains and hearts, and the pain is far more debilitating
than broken bones. Their spirits become broken instead. This
prevents our children from becoming who they were meant to
be. The vicious cycle is set because more than
8 out of 10 of these children will go on to become overweight
adults, carrying with them forever all the baggage from childhood. That
is if we continue to feed this vicious cycle.
Ask your pediatrician what a normal weight range is for
each of your children.
Parents are forced out of denial and empowered by this knowledge. No
longer will weight be a forbidden secret, but a symptom that
can be healed by the family.
Many pediatricians feel helpless dealing with this obesity
epidemic because it requires intense education and assistance
to put the family on a healthy path. Time that most
of them do not have to give. Most pediatricians have
not even taken nutrition courses, so they do not feel comfortable
being the expert, either. But they can refer you to
one.
Look at the back of your child's neck today and see
if you notice a darker pigment where the skin has thickened,
looking leathery with crevices--it actually looks dirty,
but cannot be washed away. This may be acanthosis nigricans
which means your child is insulin resistant and is heading
down a path towards illness. It is a warning sign that
your family is not making the best choices. But you
have the power to reverse this by helping your child to lose
weight and by improving your family's diet and activity
level.
Ask your pediatrician for a referral if your children are
not within their normal weight range or have developed complications
related to obesity.
Remember when our children were toddlers, and we were in
a hurry? We would tell them to hurry up, but instead they
would only go slower. We did not understand that our
anxiety of being in a rush was picked up by our kids and
this alarmed them. Their response was to go slowly
because that was their comfort zone. And this in turn
frustrated us all the more. If we understand how kids
work then we can control situations better.
As parents we need to accept our part in our child's
battle of the bulge. The chunky child is not to blame
or shame. In order to conquer the childhood obesity
epidemic, we must make a difference one child and one family
at a time. To start, we must teach that food is fuel. Similar
to your car, we need the right types and combinations of
fuel for our bodies to run efficiently. Good nutrition,
or lack of it, will affect a child long after a parent is
gone. We need to set our priorities straight. The
brand of tennis shoes is not nearly as important as the type
of protein we buy our children.
We need to slow down because we move through life too fast. All
the conveniences of the 21st century have not given us what
we really want: more time. We get caught up
in a whirlwind and do not know how to get out.
Take stock of what is really important to you.
And begin to spend our time and efforts in this area. We
must pick and choose. We must learn to say "no" to
things that do not further our priorities. If we say
our family is most important to us, then we need to put our
time and efforts with them. This is not easy in our
world, but it can be done once you are conscious of your
wishes.
Over the years, it has been convenient to place the blame
on genetics for our children being overweight. It is
far easier to accept when you can point the finger to someplace
other than looking in the mirror. But the same genetic
pool can turn out two very different children. Many
would say the skinny one is lucky and the chunky one is not. But
in reality, the opposite may be true. It is recognized
by many that being overweight is a symptom of being unhealthy. So
the chunky kid actually is getting the wake up call to do
better. The skinny kid may very well have the beginning
stages of heart disease from eating the same foods that weighed
down the chunky kid, but the skinny kid is living in false
hope that they are healthy. Therefore, parents are
not punishing the skinny kid by keeping junk food out of
the home. Our homes must remain the safe zone by stocking
only foods with benefits. Snack items should be string
cheese, low-fat pudding, or fruit, to suggest a few.
Genetics may predispose a child to obesity, but it is truly
lifestyle that causes it. Let us set our families up
for success by creating a safe environment and a fundamental
base for the family's healthy development.
Resolve not to buy junk food for anyone in the house.
Remember that your kids love you, too, and want you around
for many years to come. Once in a while, make it a special
event to go out for ice cream…although frozen yogurt
may be a better choice, but you do not have to be perfect. Just
choose wisely more often than not!
Every New Year, we get the opportunity to reflect on what
we have done and where we are headed. So many of us
have put our children on a path to illness instead of our
innate wish to head them on a happily-ever after-version
of life. Now that we know better, this New Year let
us resolve to "do better."
Practice Daily Tips from Camp Jump Start
- Walk tall and hold in your belly
- Drink a glass of water 15 minutes before each meal
- Put eating utensil down after every bite
- Portion control by reading labels
- Do not take second helpings except for veggies
- Leave a bite of each food on your plate
- Eat on schedule—plan your week
- Eat only at the kitchen table
- Do not do anything else when you are eating---NO television!
- Eat only when you are hungry
- Know hunger versus boredom versus cravings
- Serve dressings on the side
- Everyone eat "Kid's meals with healthy choices
when available"
- Drink 8 glasses of water everyday--carry a water bottle
with you
- Equal exercise activity for equal screen-time--television,
computer, video
- Do not eat after 7 p.m.
- Do not reward with food--spend time together in an activity
as a reward
- Use a small plate
- No soda
- Walk, walk, walk--take the parking spot farthest away!
***Remember that you do NOT have to be PERFECT to be WONDERFUL!
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