a growing concern

You are your kids role model!
Childhood obesity is an increasing problem within Australia. Step up and teach your children about the importance of an active lifestyle. Teach them about proper nutrition.

• Overweight children and adolescents are at increased risk for several health complications. Despite being young they are still likely to exhibit risk factors for adult medical conditions: cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. In the very near future, 1 in 3 people will be diabetic - and that is so scary.
• Additional health complications include sleep apnea, asthma, and liver damage.
• Being overweight as a child also has psychological and emotional consequences. Overweight children are at an increased risk of teasing and bullying, low self-esteem, and poor body image.
• Overweight children and adolescents are more likely to become obese adults.

There is not one single cause for a child to be overweight, rather it is a complex interaction of many variables. Contributing factors include genetics, behaviour (nutrition, physical activity, sedentary activities) and environment.

Promoting Healthy Habits and a Healthy Weight
Lifestyles and behaviors are established early in life; therefore, a focus on healthful behaviours is vital to promoting healthy weight. The primary goals of overcoming being overweight should be healthful eating and increased activity. It is important for children to consume enough calories to support normal growth and development without promoting excessive weight gain. The home, childcare setting, school and community are all integral to a more healthful environment for our kids.

As parents, we have a huge responsibility to enable our children to live a healthy life ... we can promote healthy nutrition, physical activity habits and a healthy weight among our kids by:

Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits
Serve a wide variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Provide children with a variety of foods to ensure they get all the nutrients they need for proper growth and development.

Know how much food kids need. Keep portion sizes in check to help children maintain their sense of self-regulation - and to know when they are hungry and when they are full.

Be a good role model for kids by eating together. Eating meals as a family has been shown to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and decrease the amount of junk foods and sugar sweetened beverages.

Promoting Physical Activity
Aim for children to accumulate a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. Activity bouts can be all at once or in several bouts spread throughout the day. Increase opportunities for children to engage in physical activity throughout the day. Step up and teach your children about the importance of an active lifestyle.

Be a good role model. Engage in activity with children.

Limit screen and television time. Keep televisions and video games out of children’s bedrooms to help them limit the amount of screen time. Make sure we as parents we encourage eating nutritionally and engaging in regular exercise!

A final astounding article ....
"TODDLERS are becoming so obese they are weighing in at double the healthy range. "