Your
Actions
Check with your pediatrician and with the help
of his growth chart it can be determined or confirmed
if weight is an issue with your child. If it is
decided that your child is overweight, then your
focus should be to slow down his weight gain and
not put him on some weight loss program. Some
tips you can consider:
• Look into your child’s consumption of
fat: make a substantial difference to calories
without a substantial difference to taste. The
first step is to reduce his table fats and fried
foods. Instead of frying foods in oil or butter
try dry frying in a non-stick pan or baking. Opt
for low-calorie spreads instead of butter; oven
baked French fries instead of deep frying them.
Eggs and bacons for instance ought to be cooked
in a non-stick pan. Mode of cooking affects calories.
• Although no longer on a milk diet, it
is sensible to serve your child semi-skimmed milk.
Serve water at meals or as thirst quenchers instead
of juices and fizzy drinks. Occasionally mix fresh
juice with soda as a treat.
• Look into his carbohydrate intake because
while they work as energy foods, the sugary versions
do more harm than good. Sugar in drinks for instance
gives a lot of calories without actually filling
him up. Reduce on empty calories and dissuade
your child from growing dependant on sweet drinks
and you are working towards preventing your child
from walking on the road towards obesity.
• Avoid using sweets as rewards and treats;
he will want sweets whenever he is miserable and
associate sweets as being part of your loving
feelings. He will start seeing sweets as being
owed to him whenever something untoward happens
to him. Manage a cool approach where sweets are
concerned and treat sweets as you would other
foods. Of course it is best not to keep sweets
in the house and at regular intervals buy your
child the less damaging variety in small portions.
Ten small sweets seem more to a child than five
big ones!
• Look at his lifestyle and then look at
yours too; is he glued to the TV or does he expend
enough energy on the playground, is he a lot on
the floor exploring or stuck in his playpen? The
fact remains that children like emulating adults
and so does your child emulate you and prefers
being a couch potato to an active energetic person?
All children, more so an overweight child needs
other children and adults to run around with and
away from. They can learn games like catch ball
in the company of an active adult or rolling on
the ground from other kids. As your kid progresses
from crawling to walking, he will want to be on
the move - encourage this as it will do him good
physically and mentally.
• With an older kid, be wary of snack foods.
Three square meals just won’t do – you will need
to incorporate snacks, which are essentially mini-meals
in between regular meals. Snacks are a necessity
and many are interestingly packaged and are more
often fun foods containing loads of calories.
Because of this snack foods often become nutritionally
challenging. A pack of chocolate biscuits for
instance isn’t very nutritious versus an apple.
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