6 Ways to Lower Childhood Obesity Risk

Childhood obesity is on the rise. In fact, over 20% of 12-19-year-olds are obese. Parenting is hard no matter what but when our kids face health challenges, we have to look at our own behavior and see if we can do anything to prevent or cure the problem. And in the case of obesity, barring any underlying conditions that may be the cause, our parenting may be at the root of childhood obesity. Preliminary findings for an ongoing study revealed that the way parents interact with their children during playtimes could impact a child's risk for becoming obese. So that's certainly important: being warm and comforting during playtime encourages a healthy BMI later in life. Who knew? Here are six additional ways to help prevent childhood obesity.

1. Put a Focus on Fruits and Veggies

Most children don’t eat enough vegetables and fruits and are given other types of foods instead. Who hasn't given a kid pizza and watched their little face light up? But when children are given a piece of fruit or a plate of veggies instead of salty snacks or sweet candy, their tastebuds will adjust and the fruit and veggies will start to taste like treats as they also feel better overall. By choosing fruits for “dessert,” or by offering veggies as an after school snack, children are exposed to these kinds of foods from an early age and that exposure will drive their adulthood choices far more than we might realize. These tactics help normalize eating fruit and veg and can instill a lifelong love of healthy foods that are lower in calories. 

2. Limit or Eliminate Fast Food and Processed Food

Fast food might taste great, and so do many types of processed foods—they play on our natural desire for fats, sweets, and salty crunch. They taste so good because they’re full of fats, sugars, and chemicals that the body starts to crave once it’s been exposed to them, yes, like a drug. Since young children don’t have good impulse control and might not be sure about how to properly regulate the occasional unhealthy meal, it’s up to parents to reduce the amount of fast and processed food children are getting in order to lower their risk of obesity. Use the first suggestion, above, to crowd out these unhealthy snacks by replacing them with better options.

3. Keep a Stocked Pantry and Fridge

Children eat what they see their parents eating as well as what’s readily available to them in the home. They become a product of their environment. By creating an environment that’s centered around healthy food and good choices with the occasional “splurge” for a special occasion, parents teach their children how to eat. They also help show their children that there are a lot of options for healthy food. By stocking the pantry and fridge with healthy options even adults are more likely to choose an apple over a bag of chips if that's all that's available.

4. Encourage an Attitude of Experimentation

Trying new foods isn’t often something children want to do. When they do try new foods, they may not like it because it’s different or unusual, or because it has a texture they’re not used to. It can take more than one time trying a new food before a child actually likes it, so offer it more than once or try fixing it in different ways to encourage your child to keep trying things they may not have loved the first time around. But learning to find excitement in food through new flavors rather than through overloaded sugar, salt, and fat, ill give them the lifetime skill of finding pleasure in food without resorting to junk food to do it. Remember that it can take several times of eating something in order to develop a palate that enjoys or appreciates it. 

5. Enlist the School to Help Fight Childhood Obesity

What children eat at home can be controlled fairly well, but it’s harder to control what they eat at school. They should be getting a nutritious breakfast before they head out the door to their classes, and there should be at-home conversations about making good choices at lunch. Some schools serve more options than others, and children don’t always understand what they should choose. They usually go for what they know tastes good or what their peers are eating, and that can make eating healthy food at lunch more challenging. Enlist the school to post helpful signs instructing kids on healthy choices, or talk to them about revamping the menu. Maybe the PTA can take it on as a project. Start with a phone call to the assistant principal and see if you can drum up a little help. You're not alone. Other parents are in this same boat and the schools can help, if you can get them on board.

6. Participate in Physical Activity With Your Child

While diet plays the biggest role in obesity, both in childhood and beyond, getting physical exercise can be very important. Not only can it help burn calories and reduce weight, but it can also encourage them to be more physically active as they grow up, setting them up for a lifetime of health. If children stay active throughout their youth they’re also less likely to put on weight when they reach adulthood. Help them to get involved in a sport or take up a hobby like bike riding. Encourage a competitive edge to help them find ways to keep growing in their activities over a lifetime. For socially-focused kids, get them into a team sport, and for more creative-minded kids consider dance classes. On weekends maybe you can hike together as a family, instilling a love for the outdoors, or maybe you can take up tennis and learn together.

It’s not completely possible to eliminate the risk of childhood obesity, but it’s certainly possible to lower that risk by making healthy choices and modeling good behaviors. Parents who do those things typically have children who are less likely to be overweight or unhealthy, which can mean those children have happy memories to last a lifetime and are more comfortable in their bodies as adults, as well.

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