How can childhood obesity be prevented?

Answer 1

With busy schedules and tempting junk food, it's easy to let children eat too much or eat the wrong thing! If you want to cut down on childhood obesity, give one of these a try.

1. Don't reward children with food. Find other ways to celebrate good behavior. Instead of taking your child out for a scoop of icecream after getting a good grade, how about letting him / her choose out an inexpensive toy or allow him / her to decide on a fun outing such as camping or rollerskating.

2. Practice what you preach. If you're practicing healthy habits, it's a lot easier to convince children to do the same. Incorporate healthy activities into the time you spend with children. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming, garden or just play hide-and-seek outside. Everyone will benefit from the exercise and the time together.

3. Encourage physical activities that children really enjoy. Remember that each child is unique and may have to experiment with many activities until he or she finds one that is enjoyable. Exercise could be joining the soccer team, doing heavy gardening, or going for a daily stroll through the neighborhood.

4. Limit TV, video game and computer time.
Help children develop a positive self image. Focus on the positives instead of the negatives. Everyone likes to be praised for a job well done.

5. Be an advocate for healthier children. Insist on good food choices at school cafeterias and vending machines. (How about milk and juice instead of soda; fruit and veggies instead of chips and candy?) Encourage school principals to offer more physical fitness opportunities that kids will actually enjoy.

Answer 2

While I admit there are a lot of obese kids these days who would probably weigh less if they weren't strapped to their XBox 10 hours a day, there are just as many kids out there who lead an active a healthy lifestyle and are still clinically obese...I was one of them and I am still a medically obese adult. Several years ago I had achieved almost 0% body fat. I am 6'0" and weighed 240lbs. (I put on some more pounds in the past few years.) But I hike 3-5 miles almost every day, in the summer I kayak almost an hour a day 4 days a week and mountain bike 5 miles 2-3 times a week. I ski regularly in winter and also snowshoe. This is my job. I have very little problems hauling my massive frame around the woods...and I smoke about 8 cigarettes a day as well. As a kid I rode my bike everywhere in the summer, I hiked, backpacked, and skied with my scout troop very regularly and I played baseball and soccer all through middle school and high school. I don't think I ate or snacked anymore than all of the kids who were thinner. So, while I agree steps should be taken to get kids off of the couch, not all of them are going to be models of fitness.

Answer 3

I was able too. Child obesity has became a huge problem over the past 10 years or more. I think children need to have more physical activity. Instead of letting children play video games and watch t.v. I think parents need to stress the importance of physical activity. The problem today is we as a society are in a hurry and do not take the time to spend as a family so therefore, we let the children entertain their self. Childhood obesity can be prevented if you choose to work with it. Monitor the food in your house. Make sure that fruits and vegatables are available. Choose 100% juice instead of drinks. Cook dinner instead of fast food. Make sure you devote at least 30 min. of physical activity a day with your children. It can be playing basketball to riding your bike around the block. You have to remember that children are watching and learning. Find things in your community that you can do together as a family. Get involved. Play is the most important part in a childs life. :Play involves learning and phyiscal involment. I know I keep stressing physical activity but it is vitally important. If you can remember when you were a child you did not have all the video games and computers to entertain you. You had to play outside and use your imagintion. In all, make sure you make the time to cook,

Answer 4

Children need a lot of guidance from parents. They need to have a healthy diet from the start and they need to be encouraged to take exercise. A few sweets, etc. are ok as an occassional treat but with my kids they are usually just that, a treat. My oldest(6) has never really been bothered with sweets because I never let him have them until he was about 2 years old! And I would always give him snacks like carrots and fruit. I'm a little less strict with the baby(1) and he is more fussy but I don't let him have sweets too often. Maybe once or twice a week.
My 6 year old never keeps still so he is really thin. He loves going for walks with me. Now he has a sense of direction, I let him choose which way to go so it is like an adventure for him. The baby has already got a taste for playing rugby and cricket! Even though he can't walk yet! Those are the kind of things you should encourage and always tell them how good they are for doing the right things.
And neither of my kids are allowed sweets or anything if they don't eat a healthy meal. I often do things like let my 6 year old play on the computer for an hour or take extra time to do something he chooses rather than giving sweets as a treat.

Answer 5

Only have healthful food in the house. Kids can't go buy food themselves! Set a good example with your diet. Growing up, we had cereal and milk in the morning, sandwich and caprisun for lunch and a homecooked dinner. My parents NEVER had icecream, soda pop, chips, candy, etc around the house. Sure in middleschool I might pick up a few of those with my lunch money, but once the novelty wore off, since I never really grew up consuming it, I'm a very fit and healthful person today. Its not so much about preventing *childhood* obesity, but teaching the child a healthful LIFESTYLE that will stick with them till they are old. But I think childhood obesity is 101% preventable BY PARENTS WHO CARE ENOUGH. You take the junkfood out of the house, you control the money, you control the food they consume 95% of the time.
Take the kids to outdoor activities. Go on a hike down to the beach on the weekends. Rather than let them sit at home and play video games all day, sign them up for a sport. Promote a healthful lifestyle. Simple as that.

Answer 6

I have been involved with children since I was able too. Child obesity has became a huge problem over the past 10 years or more. I think children need to have more physical activity. Instead of letting children play video games and watch t.v. I think parents need to stress the importance of physical activity. The problem today is we as a society are in a hurry and do not take the time to spend as a family so therefore, we let the children entertain their self. Childhood obesity can be prevented if you choose to work with it. Monitor the food in your house. Make sure that fruits and vegatables are available. Choose 100% juice instead of drinks. Cook dinner instead of fast food. Make sure you devote at least 30 min. of physical activity a day with your children. It can be playing basketball to riding your bike around the block. You have to remember that children are watching and learning. Find things in your community that you can do together as a family. Get involved. Play is the most important part in a childs life. :Play involves learning and phyiscal involment. I know I keep stressing physical activity but it is vitally important. If you can remember when you were a child you did not have all the video games and computers to entertain you. You had to play outside and use your imagintion. In all, make sure you make the time to cook, play, and spend time with your children. You will be amazed in the difference it will make.

Answer 7

It starts with the parents. Parents need to take the responsibility of having foods in the house that are nutritious. They also have to limit what the child eats throughout the day. Also, parents need to make sure that the child is active and not some couch potato video game playing child. If the parent does not do what they should to make sure the child maintains a healthy lifestyle that is just like abuse. You are allowing that child to be unhealthy and you should be charged with child abuse.

Family heritage and genes play a role, but, there is no excuse for obesity, whether in a child or an adult. If everyone just monitored what they ate, how much they ate and was a little bit more active, we would not have heart disease, stroke, or cancer as much as we do today.

Answer 8

personally i think that television and computer games has been a major contribution to kids being obese today.In schools they don`t have enough exercise anymore .Also familys have at least 2 cars per household which means kids don`t walk alot.Sometimes when they go to school they are just 2 mins from the school by car and can`t be bothered to walk.This is definitely the fault of the parents.
The food nowadays is convenient food no actual proper cooking time so really not alot of nutrition is left in the food.Kids have far too much variety of low nutritional food and prefer eating this.The parents also don`t spend enough time preparing good food and teaching them about fresh food rather than the pre packed stuff,The kids don`t actually play like they used to they would rather play on the computer or play station If parents reduced the games and made the children walk to school ,take up a sport of some kind then obesity will be dramatically reduced.

Answer 9

There is no simple answer to this question: There are many psychological and physiological issues to consider. Obesity is compex, involving both emotional and physical factors. Junk food certainly does not help...a lot of kids today don't KNOW HOW to eat right...they have not had the proper example. Eating meals at home together is proven to reduce obesity. There is less fat and sugar content in food prepared at home. Also, at home there is time for family discussion, and the focus is not mainly on filling up...sometimes what a person REALLY needs, anyway, is emotional fulfillment, not being filled up with food!!

Answer 10

Sometimes it can't be prevented but it is possible for it to be helped. You see, alot of obese children inherit it from either their parents or someone in their family. But this is no ones fault, it just happens.

But sometimes it's caused by not teaching your child about nutrition or how to eat healthy at a young age. This can be fixed by getting active with your child. Play outside in the park or go swimming or biking or even just taking your child for a walk can help in getting them more fit and able to have fun at the same time. Also, it's not to late to start teaching them about nutrition. Try fixing a healthy but hearty meal at least twice a week. It also helps if you also eat along with them that way they won't think it's a punishment. Get your child in the kitchen with you and show him all the ingredients that go into making the meal and have them do some of the work with you. This way they will want to try the meal they helped prepare.

Try these ideas out and I really hope they help. Good luck!

Answer 11

The food nowadays is convenient food no actual proper cooking time so really not alot of nutrition is left in the food.Kids have far too much variety of low nutritional food and prefer eating this.The parents also don`t spend enough time preparing good food and teaching them about fresh food rather than the pre packed stuff,The kids don`t actually play like they used to they would rather play on the computer or play station If parents reduced the games and made the children walk to school ,take up a sport of some kind then obesity will be dramatically reduced.